The new wave of selling on mobile and social

The upcoming holidays are expected to experience a raise in the US e-commerce, up to 9% of the total retail. Mobile will have the biggest growth, with an increase of + 32%. How do retailers react in front of this trend?

 

Mobile e-commerce Shopping

Mobile friendly websites are obviously their first answer. But we observe, in addition, an expanding trend, which is the focus on the shopping on apps. It is called contextual commerce. Indeed, Thanks to the fact that mobiles allow us nowadays to pay for daily transactions, and that they follow us anywhere, huge amount of inherent data is stored. Apps are an easy way to get some of those informations about the way of life of your customers and their preferences.

As a consequence, the shopping on social media apps is another growing trend. In this extend, it is fundamental to have good CTAs (Call to Actions). Shopping on social media provides an even more wealthy way to have access to useful informations for the CMOs, such as: the purchases done, the interests, the browsing history, the preferences or even the connections. By monetizing these informations, the retailers will be able to shorten the customer journey, personalize their offers and improve the profitability. Social media allow also sharing of opinions and ratings of the products. That is it now strategic for marketers to reward customers who share their opinions.  

  

As the use of Internet on mobile keeps on increasing and has notably surpassed the desktop’s, we think that e-retailers should perhaps increase the ad spending on mobiles. As a matter of fact though, it is hard to compare the mobile ad spending strategy between mobile and desktops. Mobile face indeed lower conversion rate. That is why a focus on the usability on mobiles seems to be a better strategy. Retailers may focus more on the service than advertisement presence to catch growth. In other words, think on ways for customers to purchase more easily on their phones. Nevertheless, as mobiles’ technology keeps on increasing, we may see in a cupple of years a conversion rate on mobiles close to this of desktop’s. 

By Alban Couturier and Margaux Peuvergne

Sources: 

http://techcrunch.com/2015/11/29/the-new-wave-of-selling-on-mobile-and-social/ 
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