The latest study by cross channel solution provider CrossView of mobile readiness amongst 95 retailers – including some of the world’s top names such as Apple. Best Buy, Staples , Walgreens and Walmart – has found that most are doing many things right with mobile, but there is still room for improvement.
The 2012 survey, which included questions centering on mobile best practices, revealed gaps between how top brands and other retailers are executing mobile strategies. According to the study, 90% of top 10 retailers have mobile-optimized sites and apps, while two thirds of all other retailers in the survey have mobile-optimized sites.
Additionally, all top 10 retailers with mobile sites offer ratings and reviews, compared to 57% of the remaining retailers in the survey.
70% of top 10 retailers enable in-store pick-up, compared to 16% of the remaining sample.
One key finding is lack of commonality within retail brands. Google and Bing recently published mobile best practices that recommend a universal URL, using the same URL for both mobile and desktop websites. Surprisingly, none of the top 10 retailers surveyed host their mobile sites on the same URL as their desktop sites.
All top 10 retailers displayed the same price for merchandise in their web stores and mobile sites. Of the remaining retailers, 74% had the same pricing between touch points.
80% of the top 10 retailers displayed the same prices on the mobile site vs. the physical store, compared to 66% of the remaining retailers.
90% of top 10 retailers display sales and marketing promotions on their mobile sites and 56% of remaining retailers offer promotions. These numbers show a mobile trend toward an increase in digital coupons due to the growing penetration of smartphones among consumers.
“Many retailers are approaching mobile commerce in a successful way, but CrossView’s study highlights opportunities that also exist in the marketplace,” says Jason Goldberg, Vice President, Strategy and Customer Experience, CrossView. “Retailers can implement remedies without huge investment. The key is to avoid thinking of mobile as a separate channel, but rather an extension of other touch points that can help retailers enable their customers to leverage the strengths associated with mobile technology.”
