DDi - July 2012 - (Page 12)

12 | Newsworthy | Headlining The changing face of commerce: mobile on the rise ith the onset of online shopping, bricks-and-mortar stores revolutionized their approach to selling. And with the rising adoption of mobile devices, it looks like another revolution has begun. Not only are consumers using mobile devices to make purchases from their favorite retailers, but they also are using them to browse items, compare prices and check the latest deals. “In the past year, mobile commerce accounted for $8 billion worth of sales,” said Mickey Alam Kahn, editor in chief of Mobile Marketer and Mobile Commerce Daily, as he welcomed the audience to this year’s “Mcommerce Summit” on May 4, at the National Museum of the American Indian in New York. “Also, 5 percent of all e-commerce sales are mobile, and we will see this number grow quickly.” Backing up his statistics, Joy Liuzzo, president of Wave Collapse LLC, presented research captured from 1,000 smartphone users across all age groups. The study included the iPhone, Android, Windows and Blackberry phones, and showed 25 percent of users made a purchase through a mobile website, app or tablet in the past week, while 61 percent reported using this method of purchase frequently. “We also found people who are not purchasing on mobile devices are still using them to look at products,” Luizzo explained. At Zappos, the online retailer entered the m-commerce space with an iPad app, but now offers apps on a variety of platforms, including the iPhone and Android. However, the iPad and other tablet devices remain the most popular for their customers, said Alex Kirmse, head of mobile at Zappos. He also told attendees the company’s analytics show evenings and weekends, particularly Sunday, as the biggest mobile sales days. “App customers also have a higher order value and are better customers compared to even our mobile website,” Kirmse said. In terms of highest sales and biggest carts, he said the iPad comes in first, followed by the iPhone and then Android. “There are 60 million iPads sold so far,” said Andres Wolberg-Stock, senior vice president and director of strategy for mobile and emerging W technologies at North American Consumer Banking at Citi, who also spoke at the summit about the financial industry and mobile banking. “It’s the fastest-growing device category in history.” Consumers also are using their mobile devices to interact with retailers outside of making a purchase. In order to drive more traffic into its mall locations, General Growth Properties created an iPhone app in 2010 to deliver sales and event information happening at retail locations within the company’s properties, said Jeffrey Cloud, director of digital marketing, email and mobile at the company. It’s the fastest-growing device category in history. —Andres Wolberg-Stock, North American Consumer Banking at Citi. The app includes a “Play a Day” game offering consumers a chance to win a $50 mall gift card. Since app owners have a chance to play once per day, it sends them back to the app more often, where they can be lured into the stores by the new sales. The company also launched a mobile website in 2010, and 8.6 percent of its website visits are currently on a mobile device. M-commerce extends far beyond offering an app on a mobile phone. With the introduction of Google Wallet and other mobile payment methods, consumers are integrating their mobile devices into their overall shopping routine—even using them within the physical store. In the Wave Collapse study, 30 percent of smartphone owners reported using mobile apps in the actual store, and the most popular are those for barcode scanning and price comparison. General Growth Properties added door clings to mall entrances with QR codes, allowing consumers to scan them with a phone and immediately pull up the sales at retailers in the mall that day. And when given the option to either text or scan a QR code for more information, the QR code wins hands down, Cloud said. “We offer consumers the ability to get a mobile map of the mall through a QR code or sending a text, and four times the amount of people scan the QR code over texting,” he explained. However, texting is another viable option for retailers to interact with their customers, and has worked extremely well for Alon Brands, fuel supplier to convenience stores and the largest licensee of 7-Eleven stores in the nation. The company works with PocketStop’s social customer relationship management (CRM) software, which includes SMS messaging and social media tracking. Phone numbers are gathered when consumers text unique codes to activate offers, such as a Free Big Gulp with a Tamale purchase. “This builds a database you can go www.ddionline.com | July 2012 http://www.ddionline.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of DDi - July 2012

DDi - July 2012
Contents
From the Editor
From the Show Director
Newsworthy
Shopper Insights
Greentailing
Editor’s Choice
Design Snapshot
El Palacio de Hierro
Global Department Store Summit
Liverpool
Neiman Marcus
State of the Fixture Industry Roundtable
2012 Fixture Leaders listing
2012 Fixture Leaders company index
Fixture Products
Right Light
Product Spotlight
Calendar
Advertisers
Classifieds
Think Tank

DDi - July 2012