Much has been written about how mobile is becoming the central point of the modern omni-channel retailer, but we now have proof. A new white paper from InternetRetailing and Mobify shows just how crucial mobile is to retail – and how to make it work for you.
The White Paper – called Mobile and the digital investment imperative: Why mobile trumps other 2017 digital investments – outlines how, of all the digital investment imperatives facing retailers in 2017, mobile offers the most efficient way to meet changing consumer demands.
And the document offers a range of practical tips and learnings that can help you create and deliver an effective mobile engagement strategy.
You can download the paper FREE here, but first here are five key reasons why mobile should be front and centre of your 2017 investment priorities.
1) The purchase funnel is changing
Where consumers would once pass down the purchase funnel in a linear way, now they move through it in a series of loops, often missing out stages. Understanding this and designing to meet the demands it throws up is key to implementing mobile engagement in your business.
2) Understand your customers
Uncovering your customers’ expectations is the first step to delivering a positive customer experience. When thinking about technology, you need to consider how much your customers engage with technology already – do they regularly use snapchat or are they barely using Facebook on a desktop computer? The systems they regularly interact with shape their expectations. Once you’re aware of their expectations you can determine what opportunities exist for your brand to deliver a better customer experience.
3) What customers want
A customer-first strategy dictates that you must be flexible. Customers expect a seamless, “no-channel” experience, but retailers are stuck thinking about omnichannel. The themes of simplicity, convenience, and context require you to ask and understand what kind of moment is the shopper having right now. Is this person just looking for information or do they really want to buy something right now? Combining the best of customer experience, marketing automation, and customer engagement with a mobile platform is the only way to put customers first.
4) Get the right technology
The technology to enable a good user experience exists – it’s the trap of prioritizing the latest technology over customer experience that you need to be weary of. We put this strategy in the parlance of designing for the shopper first, as opposed to doing what is possible from a technology standpoint. There are lots of amazing experiences enabled through technology, and you may be tempted to try some of them, but most of them are too novel to enhance a shopper’s experience, at least for the time being. If you do choose to try something novel, be sure it’s a surprise and delight effect, not a ‘surprise and confuse’ situation.
5) Mobile holds the key
You have many tempting digital priorities across the retail business each looking for investment, but mobile on its own can deliver many of the advantages that these other projects could deliver in part. It is also where the consumers are. Consumers are moving increasingly to mobile as their main point of contact with retailers. It may not necessarily be the point at which they purchase – although that is growing towards 50% in the UK too – but it is where they will interact at some point with your business.
Download the white paper FREE here
