Mobile..."IZE" Your E-Commerce Storefront

Many ecommerce merchants have asked MerchantAdvantage about the benefits of having your ecommerce storefront accessible on mobile devices.  MerchantAdvantage believes that every ecommerce merchant should list their products on mobile devices because of:

• the advent of improved mobile interfaces and devices to accomodate shopping
• trends in consumer behaviour patterns, and
• flat pricing by mobile technology providers to surf the Web.

Apple's iPhone led the way to providing a user friendly shopping experience on a small mobile device.  This included being able to locate products, compare prices of products, and buy products.  Because Apple's iPhone appealed primarily to a 15-35 year old demographic, this led to a pattern of increased usage by "younger" people to "mobile shop." An article from USA Today, titled Shop By Phone Gets New Meaning, confirmed these findings.  And here is another article, First Data's McCarthy Examines MCommerce Trends, from industry experts Mobile Banker, August 2008, which speaks to why they believe that "...everything is in place...finally..." for mobile commerce to explode in 2009.

Just this week, Practical E-Commerce wrote an article on new open source mobile commerce platforms referencing Nielson's, which stated that 9 million Americans have already made a purchase from a mobile device and that 50% of the 250 million odd mobile handset users in the USA are willing to make a purchase. Can you feel the trend?

While the mobile shopping experience is far from perfect, youth today expect to be able to "do it all" from their mobile device including buying anything at any time they want. And the marketplace is catching up because this is the demographic whom all companies and ecommerce merchants must reach to drive sales and increase brand exposure into the future.

Soon after the iPhone release in 2007, every major mobile device company upgraded their interfaces to compete with Apple to ensure that customers can virtually do whatever they want using their mobile devices.  The most recent announcement came from T-Mobile and Google. For November 2008, T-Mobile and Google are launching a new 3G/JavaFX mobile device to compete directly with Apple.  This new mobile device's shopping experience will be powered by Amazon and offer consumers a complete shopping experience from one of the best and largest e-retailers in the USA. Information on this new launch can be found by <<<CLICKING HERE>>>.

T-Mobile and Google had a soft launch of the product in New York two weeks ago and are launching their new offering first in Europe, where adoption of such technologies is quicker than the USA.  Introduction of the new "Google/T-Mobile Andoid, JavaFX Phone" will reach the USA 1st quarter 2009. MerchantAdvantage believes that all ecommerce merchants should realize that mobile shopping is becoming a part of our culture and stay ahead of this trend so they can be more competitive.

These mobile shopping experiences include the ability to instantly buy a gift or product, compare prices while shopping at one store or anywhere where they want, download coupons, take a picture of a product - share it with a friend - and then purchase it, and receive special offers from companies they like shopping from and trust. 

Further evidence of the proliferation of mobile shopping is evidenceed by wireless carriers building out the national infrastructure for mobile commerce and their continued flat pricing to surf the Web.  Internet Retailer reports that, by the end of 2009, 51.9% of merchants expect to operate their own m-commerce site for users of wireless devices and 57.1% also expect to design and maintain pages on social networks that give shoppers options to download digital coupons, upload videos, and participate in blogs or forums.  These m-commerce sites would be in addtion to working with shopping portals as Amazon, which also can get an ecommerce merchants products in front of consumers.

“We are seeing a fundamental shift in how retailers are deploying new web technology and that trend is going to accelerate over the next year,” says Evan Gerber, principal consultant, user experience, with Molecular Inc., an e-commerce consulting and web design firm.

“Web shopping isn’t about creating the best desktop experience on a hard-wired personal computer any more. The retailers that make best use of emerging technologies such as mobile commerce and social networking are the ones that will build the best brand recognition and create the most diverse means for shoppers to complete a transaction.”

The whole concept of mobile shopping is intuitive but the execution can be complicated. For instance:

1. How does an ecommerce merchant list/feed their products to Amazon easily so there products can subsequently get listed on the new T-Mobile/Google mobile device?
2. How does an e-commerce merchant list their product catalog into other supported mobile shopping networks and syndicated comparison shopping engines to ensure that a consumer can find their products and brand on any mobile device?
3. How does an ecommerce merchant create their own user-friendly, mobile Web Store that a consumer can go to directly and navigate through easily, and finally...
4. How does an ecommerce merchant update their product catalog and inventory management across all of these channels when a sale on a mobile device occurs?

There are answers to help ecommerce merchants "Mobile...IZE" their ecommerce storefront and excellent companies to initiate an mcommerce (mobile commerce) strategy.

MerchantAdvantage is one company that helps by:

1. supporting mobile shopping technologies that set up mobile commerce storefronts
2. supporting Amazon, and
3. feeding product catalog feeds, cost-effectively to over 150 comparison shopping engines, coupon sites, and other maketing channels that support both online ecommerce and mobile commerce

mShopper and mPoria are examples of excellent companies, whom MerchantAdvantage works with, to set up a mobile storefront in less than 24 hours from a clean data feed.  MerchantAdvantage also is glad to put any ecommerce merchant in touch with a myriad of other companies to accomplish all that an ecommerce merchant needs to leverage the growing mobile commerce space and we recommend that you start today to stay competitive.

While I disagree with Bill Mirabito below who says that "mobile technology is not ready for actual transactions/mobile checkout", because I find it is and getting better every month, I do encourage all readers of this post to check out the following Webinar hosted by eTaildTail friends at ElasticPath.

The Webinar is free and will give you valuable insights into the best use of mobile shopping technology for the holidays.  And, when you are done with the Webinar, give me a call and I would me more than happy to go into further details of how MerchantAdvantage and our many mobile strategic relationships can help you reach customers this holiday season via their mobile devices.

Holiday Wish List for Mobile Commerce: Free Webinar: October 23rd, 2008 @ 9am PT/12pm ET

Guest Panelist: Bill Mirabito, Founder & Principal Consultant, B2C Partners

<<<CLICK HERE>>> to register for this free Webinar from our friends at ElasticPath.

Retailers love growing store traffic and improving the brand experience, but mobile devices are rarely part of the equation. Present-day technology isn’t ready for mobile checkout. However, today’s cell phones can be used by in-store consumers as an effective “kiosk on the hip.” In this session, Bill Mirabito will outline how mobile technology can help retailers drive cross-channel sales this holiday season.

In this webinar, you will learn how to:

• Engage in-store consumers and get them to register their device
• Deliver enhanced product information to consumers in the aisle
• Direct shoppers to alternate store locations with available inventory
• Create wish lists in store and share gift registries for holiday shopping
• Personalize recommendations and promotions for cross-channel consumers

<<<CLICK HERE>>> to register for this free Webinar from our friends at ElasticPath.

- Chip Arndt

Comments

[Amrendra]

No doubt these devises are puzzling the customers choices as one is finding it hard to decide which one is better.

[Amrendra]

No doubt these devises are puzzling the customers choices as one is finding it hard to decide which one is better.

[Amare]

Agree to you!! Mobile phone technologies are changing rapidly.