Author: Rebecca

According to a recent Shopgate report, retail needs to appeal to smartphone using consumers.

Shopgate, a highly recognized m-commerce business solution, has released a report called the “2013 Holiday Guide for Online Retailers”, which provided the top 10 recommendations for success, this holiday season.

Among those points, the focus on catering to smartphone users was a considerable one.

What was explained by Shopgate in its report was that retailers should start acting right away to make their way into m-commerce if they haven’t already prepared their strategy for the upcoming holiday shopping season. It is no longer enough to focus on online shopping in general and as a whole. Instead, a focus also needs to be placed specifically on the mobile channel.

In fact, when it came to getting into m-commerce, the recommendation was “do it now!”

The report from Shopgate pointed out that m-commerce traffic is not only already representing more than 20 percent of all American internet traffic, but it is also expected to exceed desktop based internet traffic by the end of next year. The holiday season is predicted to be the transitional time into that exceptional rate of growth to the point that it will be greater on smartphones and tablets than it is on laptops.

The report pointed to a number of m-commerce findings from several recent studies.

For example, it pointed out that shopping over m-commerce is expected to reach $42 billion by the end of this year, and that it will make up a larger segment of e-commerce than has ever been experienced before, according to eMarketer.

In fact, the report went to the extent of saying that retailers that choose not to take part in m-commerce may be actively choosing not to take advantage of an important source of revenue. It pointed to data from Econsultancy, which indicated that 62 percent of businesses that have created a website that is specifically optimized for smartphones and tablets, had increased their sales. The recommendation for the upcoming holiday season was to use mobile friendly elements such as: coupons, push notifications, ad scanners, daily deals, QR codes, mobile SEO, and product categories.

The favorite apps are those that simplify retail purchasing, such as those that guide the in-store process.

The results of a new study by Parks Associates have now been released and have shown that over one in four shoppers of consumer electronic products in the United States who have broadband capable devices use mobile commerce apps on their smartphones in order to help them to make a purchasing decision.

They use a number of different features from these applications to help them to decide what is best.

Among the favorite mobile commerce app features, said the report, were functions for product research, QR code and barcode scanning, as well as apps that provide interactions with brands and the retailers themselves. The report on the research was published by Parks Associates under the title “Mobile Commerce: Keys to Mass Adoption”.

Forty three percent of American smartphone owners used mobile commerce to help buy a product in September.

Consumers – particularly those that shopped at Best Buy, Walmart, and Target – were also noted to be beginning to use their smartphones to make purchasing decisions via mobile commerce channels while they are actually in the stores. These three brands all encourage their shoppers to use their own apps while they are within their stores. According to Parks Associates, it is Target shoppers that are most likely to use these applications while they are looking to purchase a consumer electronics product.

According to a Parks Associates senior analyst, Jennifer Kent, “Consumers are using apps and smartphones to enhance their brick-and-mortar shopping experience, with Target shoppers emerging as the most enthusiastic app users.” She also stated that “Our research shows 54% of Target shoppers used at least one mobile commerce app while shopping in a store for CE, while only 38% of Walmart shoppers did the same.”

The analysts behind the mobile commerce report suggested that all retailers begin to embrace the smartphone friendly experience – both with their own apps and third party products – as a method of providing consumers an enhanced overall shopping experience, as well as a front line defense against losing sales to showrooming.