Tag: retail mobile commerce

Mobile commerce becoming a major aspect of retail

Accenture, a leading market research firm, has released a new study concerning the preferences consumers have in the realm of online shopping. The Seamless Retail Study highlights these preferences, showing that many consumers favor their mobile devices to shop for and purchase products online. Mobile commerce is growing increasingly common, especially in the retail industry, due to the convenience it offers to consumers. Many consider using their smartphones and tablets to shop online is simple more efficient than other forms of shopping.

Survey shows consumers are likely to use mobile devices to shop

The study includes a survey, which notes that 88% of consumers claimed to have participated in “webrooming,” a practice similar to showrooming wherein consumers browse for products on the Internet before purchasing products in a physical store. The survey also shows that approximately 43% of consumers have plans to shop online more frequently in the future, with 23% of these consumers noting that they plan to use their mobile devices to shop.

Mobile commerce offers more convenience to shoppers

The study suggests that consumers are becoming increasingly interested in a seamless shopping experience, wherein they can find and purchase the products they are interested online and pick up those products as soon as possible. Mobile commerce is somewhat accommodating of this trend, as it enables consumers to make a purchase from their mobile device and, in some cases, retrieve their purchased products from a physical store. Amazon has recently begun offering such a service, which has been well received by consumers interested in mobile commerce.

Retailers may have to work harder to engage a changing consumer base

The study claims that retailers may need to combine their store, online, and mobile shopping channels in order to appeal to a changing consumer base. More people are getting their hands of high-end smartphones and tablets, making them more mobile-centric. As such, retailers that do not appeal to consumers on a mobile level could stand to lose significant ground with these people as mobile commerce becomes more prolific.

American Eagle Outfitters makes it into the Keynote Systems top 10 out of 30 sites.

The teen fashion retail chain, American Eagle Outfitters has seen a considerable jump in the performance of its m-commerce website particularly because of its successful load completions and rapid loading time.

The website was recorded to have an average load speed of 11.23 seconds for its homepage.

Until the most recent Keynote Mobile Commerce Performance Index ranking was released, American Eagle Outfitters Inc. had never been included among the leading performers. This changed in the latest report, which included the statistics for the week that ended on April 7.

The retailer’s m-commerce performance rank leapt up by 9 positions due to some important changes.

This marked the first time that the retailer made it into the top 10, as it ranked tenth out of the thirty sites that are included on the index. This favorable ranking was achieved after the site’s m-commerce homepage loaded at an average rate 11.23 seconds. That same page was able to load successfully and completely 99.87 percent of the time.

When these two figures were brought together using the Keynote m-commerce ranking system, it scored the company a 741 out of a possible 1,000. The progress that the retailer made with their website performance was explained by one of Keynote’s mobile performance experts, Venkatesh Giri, who said that “American Eagle cut down extra page objects and optimized its site for a better mobile experience,” going on to explain that “Its mobile home page is serving up 30 objects which add up to 220 kilobytes.”

The retailer has been applying a number of design techniques for m-commerce websites that are known to be helpful in boosting performance. Cutting back on objects was a start, but they also used sprite files for all of the icons and images on the page, which allowed them to be saved as one, reducing server calls and therefore the time needed to load the page.

Giri said that slashing the number of unnecessary objects on an m-commerce page without sacrificing the functionality and look of the site is one of the most critical elements of optimizing for smartphones and tablets.