Insights / Multichannel
US Retailers: Who Is – And Isn’t – Ready for Mobile and Tablet Commerce
- 20th February
- Elisabeth Lambert 103
If you thought the US retail industry was leaps and bounds ahead of the local market when it comes to utilising mobile and tablet commerce, think again. A recent study by Zmags has revealed some surprising insights about the readiness of US retailers in this increasingly mobile space.
Although there are still some who think the mobile branches of commerce are made up notions of an excitable columnist, a white paper recently released by rich media mobile and social merchandising provider Zmags, begs to differ.
The study, ‘Mobile and Tablet E-commerce: Is Anyone Really Ready?’ investigated the preparedness of the top 100 US retailers for these new platforms and the consequent interactions mobile and tablet devices affords consumers. The retailers, including the usual big names of the industry such as Amazon, Apple, Walmart, Gap, Saks, Nike and Disney, were evaluated over a four week period last November and December, on the shopping and purchasing experiences they provided via tablets (iPad) smart phones (iPhone and Android) and Facebook.
And the results, particularly when many of the businesses tested are considered leaders and game changers within the retail sector, are surprising. Key findings revealed that:
- Fewer than one-third of retailers have optimised sites for tablet commerce. Most are relying on their standard websites to provide an “adequate enough” tablet shopping experience
- More than half of the retailers studied have developed smart phone-specific offerings to provide key functionality for the smaller screen.
- While over two-thirds of the retailers have developed iPhone apps, only half of that group offers the ability to purchase via the app.
- All 100 retailers have Facebook brand pages, but only one, Coldwater Creek, allows consumers to purchase directly from its Facebook page.
- Three retailers (Gilt Groupe, Disney and Urban Outfitters) were identified as having the strongest and most robust mobile offerings across most devices and channels.
- Only 19 of the top 100 retailers extended beyond ordinary HTML-type content to include more engaging material such as look books, catalogues, editorial picks and so forths. However, none of the retailers examined extended the dynamic environment or optimised the brand experience across the full range of smart phones, tablets and Facebook.
“What we discovered, unexpectedly, was that very few retailers, even among this elite group of marketers, are tapping into the full shopping potential of mobile and tablet devices. In fact, not even close to it,” said W. Sean Ford, COO and CMO of Zmags.
“Only one quarter of retailers are ready to take a consumer through checkout over tablets, but 49 percent of today’s tablet owners said they plan to shop even more next year using their device,” Ford continued. “This reflects a serious disconnect between how consumers want to shop and the inconsistent experiences they are being offered. It’s a crucial issue that retailers need to address before their competitors do.”
In terms of mobile and tablet commerce, this is a good indication of where the US retail industry is at – indeed extremely surprising when it’s generally assumed those operating within the US market are already light years ahead of their Australian counterparts.
At Power Retail, we are very interested to hear how the local retail industry views mobile and tablet commerce. Are they really the key channels to survival in the retail industry moving forward or is this another case of retail tech heads getting carried away? Either way, are you ready?
For more articles on mobile, please visit Power Mobile.
