Retail and brand businesses surveyed by Adobe Systems are overwhelmingly looking to deploy mobile websites as their mobile strategy, rather than downloadable apps, by a factor or 10 to one. The first annual Adobe Scene 7 Mobile Commerce Survey out this week finds that 80% of businesses surveyed are planning or having already deployed a mobile website. Just 8% cited a downloadable application-only mobile commerce strategy as their way ahead.
The survey uncovered four key areas of focus for businesses’ mobile strategies: promotions, commerce, product information and branding. 75% of respondents named promotions as the core of their mobile strategy, validating the mobile channel as an important method to drive traffic and support multi-channel commerce.
The survey also found that more than 55% of respondents cited full-screen image zoom and videos as indispensable viewing features for driving conversion, while an additional 96% asserted the most effective visual merchandising features were catalogues and brochures, alternative images, and zoom and pan features.
The survey also found that, while only 18% of respondents currently use rich visual merchandising features for mobile commerce, up to 81% said they had plans to deploy these features, implying richer mobile experiences will be created and offered over the next 12 months.
“Multi-channel shoppers tend to purchase more; therefore, companies must effectively engage customers by delivering consistent, rich experiences across all channels – including mobile – to maintain and fuel current double-digit e-commerce industry growth rates,” said Sheila Dahlgren, senior director of product marketing at Adobe. “The survey results demonstrate the opportunities that exist for companies to fully leverage rich visualization features to improve their emerging mobile presences and drive cross-channel sales.”
