Mobile Commerce: Why Retailers Can't Just Treat Mobile As An Extension Of The Online Experience

Mobile is having a huge impact on people's online and offline shopping habits, and that means retailers must quickly figure out how to target consumers on smartphones and tablets. For many, that has simply meant porting over the desktop experience, whether creating a mobile-optimized site or an app with rudimentary functionality.

But in a recent in-depth case study from BI Intelligence, we look at how the top mobile retailers - Amazon, eBay, and Wal-Mart- have embraced mobile to drive sales and connect with their customers. They have treated mobile as a new canvas, rather than trying to recreate the desktop experience.

Here's how the Big Three - the retailers with the greatest percentage of online visitors coming through mobile - made the channel so effective:

eBay

• eBay has made it easy for mobile users to participate in auctions on-the-go. Auctions and mobile are a powerful combination since smartphone shoppers are now able to check on their bids in time-sensitive auctions from anywhere, any time of day.
• The company has also focused on search and discovery. One of the keys to eBay's success is the thrill of finding hard-to-locate items, locally-available items, and deals. eBay has organized its app around search, product images, and personalized feeds and interests.
• eBay has also single-mindedly attacked frictions in terms of payment, leaning on its PayPal payments platform to make payments easier.

Wal-Mart

• Wal-Mart has strived to move faster on mobile than it did on PC-based e-commerce. Neil Ashe, the company's top e-commerce executive, told Fast Company last year that Wal-Mart "is going to go away if we don't get the Internet and mobile right."
• Wal-Mart also has been noticeably aggressive in providing avenues for price-conscious mobile customers to find special deals. For example, Wal-Mart let mobile customers preview Black Friday offers and local ads.
• Wal-Mart's app isn't all about attracting online shoppers and engaging mobile users, it's also about directing them to Wal-Mart stores, and helping them shop there.

Amazon

• Amazon's mobile experience is part-and-parcel of its celebrated focus on the customer experience. Amazon mobile is a blend of seamless 1-click payments, intuitive navigation, and data-driven recommendations.
• The loyalty program Amazon Prime also serves to reinforce e-commerce purchasing, rewarding frequent customers with free shipping and video streaming. These privileges tend to enmesh users deeper within the Amazon ecosystem and its world of e-commerce, media distribution, and hardware.

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The report is full of charts and datasets that can be easily downloaded and put to use.

In full, the report:

• Advances the "50-30-40 rule," for mobile commerce properties, which starts with the idea that 50% of the audience should be accessing on mobile.
• Analyzes the threat to e-commerce from "reverse showrooming," which is when customers browse online but shop in physical stores.
• Studies the cases of eBay, Amazon, and Wal-Mart in order to see what they've done on mobile, and why.
• Looks at the use of the mobile Web vs. apps for the Big Three, and how each plays a different role depending on where the consumer is accessing.
• Discusses and compares the "mobile lift," or the incremental mobile audience for the Big Three retailers.

For full access to all BI Intelligence's charts and analysis on the e-commerce industry, sign up for a free trial subscription today.