Retailers Are Driving Huge Increases In Mobile Shopping And Buying - This Is How

BII

Mobile commerce is exploding. On Black Friday this past year, sales on mobile devices accounted for more than 20% of U.S. e-commerce spending. Traffic from mobile was even bigger, accounting for almost 40% of total online shopping visits that day.

The biggest reason for this huge uptick in mobile commerce is the sheer number of people now equipped with smartphones and tablets. But there are some important ways retailers are also driving and harnessing the mobile commerce boom.

In a recent report from BI Intelligence, we examine the main reasons why mobile commerce is exploding, and analyze the new mobile merchandising trends contributing to this growth.

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Here are some of the key trends underlying the mobile commerce boom:

• By the end of the third quarter of 2013, 63% of U.S. consumers owned a smartphone and 35% owned a tablet. Users of tablets, in particular, tend to have higher incomes and have shown a strong inclination to engage in "lean-back" shopping on their devices.
• The number of U.S. smartphone users using mobile coupons has increased dramatically - from 7.4 million in 2010 to 29.5 million in 2012. This year, that number is expected to surge to 47.1 million.
• Mobile coupons are being used across the gamut in retail: 41% of mobile coupons users said they had redeemed coupons at the grocery store, 41% said they redeemed coupons at department stores, and 39% at clothing stores.
  
• Mobile coupons in combination with location-based data gathering techniques allow retailers to see not only how many coupons were redeemed, but often more granular data such as GPS-tagged location, as well as device-specific data that can then be aggregated with past digital shopping history.
• Loyalty programs continue to be a successful model for developing customer relationships, and they have been transferred to the mobile ecosystem in the form of apps. Starbucks' Passbook app allows customers to make wallet-free payments, and also pushes offers and coupons to millions of its customers. Moreover, the app knows customers' habits across digital and offline.

In full the report:

• Looks at how big mobile commerce really is, in terms of sales and traffic coming from smartphones and tablets.
• Examines the major merchandising trends - merchandising being the art of selling people products they didn't know they wanted - like mobile catalogs and coupons.
• Take a deep dive into mobile couponing - their incredible redemption rates, and their integration with other retailer objectives, including obtaining customer data and increasing foot traffic.
• Describes the particular appeal of app loyalty programs and how different businesses have used these programs to help with customer retention and sales
• Explains how mobile catalogs are becoming a driving force in online shopping, especially on tablets, and forecasts the potential for social catalogs as the next big thing.

To access BI Intelligence's full report on Mobile Commerce, sign up for a free trial subscription here.