A modern human being has on average 40 mobile apps on his smartphone. The mobile device has gathered a variety of our daily-use tools from a classic calendar to a rather extravagant metal detector.  Since we live in a consumer generation, where retail brings $1.1 trillion annually, we want to buy a lot in the most convenient way possible, thus we are also increasingly using retailer’s shopping apps. What does it mean for retailers? Is it time you forget about other channels and go mobile? 

This post originally appeared at 21webmerceblog. View original post.

Mobile is taking over

During this year’s Cyber Monday, which is the Monday after the Friday following Thanksgiving and one of the biggest online shopping days in the US, we could see a strong share of mobile commerce usage in the overall sales. It appears that due to convenience tablets reached higher conversion rates than traditional desktop computers.

Image source: econsultancy.com

This small change brings a lot of knowledge to shop owners. Consumer behaviour indicates that the mobile channel has been trusted and approved by e-shoppers. The convenience-led consumers used to choose their mobile devices  to browse for products and services, especially on the go. Nowadays they seem to be using them as much at home as on the road, and this has created both the opportunity and obligation for shop owners to increase their mobile presence.

App&Mortar a good combination

According to Flurry the growth of time spent per shopping app increased between December 2011 and December 2012. In the area of retail apps even by 525% . That’s for sure in amazing increase.

Image source: blog.flurry.com

The usage of shopping apps is obviously flourishing, which can also be proven by a life example of Macy’s. Regarding the mcommercedaily.com in December Macy’s launched a new version of their mobile app. Throughout only ten days it was downloaded by 44% of the previous version’s users. This shows in practice that the consumers became aware users of all our channels.

Image source: mcommercedaily.com

Perfect shopping experience is a unified experience

Creating a professional mobile version of your website is the most basic part of your omnichannel presence. You need it to make your service responsive to your shoppers need for convenience. It exists to provide them with information and give a possibility to purchase on the go.

What’s an app for?

In the ideal case scenario it’s downloaded to make your shoppers engage with your brand. You should have it to offer something extra, personalize the shopping experience through wish lists, shopping guides and account management panel to be used at home or in store.

To be there where your clients need you, you need to give them a full strategy for mobile experience, where each part serves a defined purpose. The 525% growth on retail apps is promising but only if clients truly engage in each channel.

Judging by the statistics and by our personal experience shopping needs to be unified and engaging. Nowadays different shops, eshops offer customers with a variety of products. You can browse, play, compare prices and at the end of the day choose different providers for different products.

What counts is the experience that the shopper gets, if it is divided into channels with a purpose in mind and up to you standards in each channel than you can think of a nice revenue.

Would you like to share your case? Or maybe need a piece of advice? Feel invited to react or contact me.

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