The Top 5 Takeaways from Mobile Shopping 2017

Think about the shopping experience that your brand delivers, whether it be in-store, online, in-app, or on mobile.

Consider the inevitably mobile-minded, digitally engaged consumer that partakes in the shopping experience with your brand across all of those channels. Whether they are using the in-store or online experience for research or to make purchases (or both), it is no secret that between emails and social channels, they are interacting with your brand on their phone most of the time.

Last week, I attended Mobile Shopping in Rancho Mirage, California and had the privilege of hearing from key innovators and thought-leaders in the mobile commerce space. Here’s what I took away from the event:

1)   Consumers don’t differentiate shopping expectations on app, desktop & mobile web experience.

Idea presented by Nabarupa Banerjee, Head of Product at SamsClub.com

Your shoppers don’t differentiate their expectations depending on which channel they engage with. They expect consistency, and value-based exchanges. What does this mean for you? First, you need to sync the teams that manage your brands’ consumer experience strategy across all channels, and second, you need to link the data flow between these channels.

If a consumer provides you with valuable data by entering information about their preferences into your brand’s app, you better believe that when they go to your website, they expect you are using that same information to continue to deliver that personalized experience.

2)   Pricing is not the competitive end-all-be-all as it once was. Delivering on customer expectations is.

Idea presented by Ross Higgins,  Director of Global User Experience & Design at Newegg

Consumers used to pick where to shop based on where they could get the best price for their item. Now, brand loyal customers are prioritizing buying from the those that consistently meet their needs.

Whether it’s quick delivery, tailored-to-me offers, or simple check-out, consumers are prioritizing convenience, quality, and personalized experiences over price.

3)   Being able to successfully communicate a lot of messages in a short amount of time comes down to data.

Idea presented by Elaine Chiang, Director of Growth Marketing at MeUndies

People check their phones on average 150 times a day, for 30 seconds at a time. If you don’t catch a consumer’s attention in the few seconds you have them scrolling past your content, then it’s on to the next one, and your brand misses out on a huge opportunity.

But although mobile is considered a disadvantage when it comes to converting customers, some of us at Mobile Shopping looked at it as an opportunity: If in those few seconds you put the right content in front of the consumer that’s most interested in it, they will stop what they are doing and engage with your brand on a one-on-one level for an uncapped amount of time.

Putting that experience in the right place can only be done if your brand prioritizes capturing relevant consumer data, and be able to activate that data as you distribute your brand marketing and retargeting campaigns.

4)   Tailor your mobile shopping experience to your mobile-minded customer.

Idea presented by Gary Penn, VP of Digital & eCommerce at Nixon.

Is your content easily digestible? Is it bite-sized and made with the on-the-go consumer in mind? Or do you expect a shopper to scroll through all of your brand’s new arrivals and click through all of the subsequent new arrivals pages as they would on desktop?

It’s 2017 (almost 2018), and no, your mobile-responsive site is not good enough, especially if you are a brand that offers many products across several categories.

Whether it’s editorial content you want to deliver, or a more streamlined shopping experience for the mobile shopper, consumers expect a digitally savvy, mobile-first experience.

5)   Drive personalized communication with better consumer data.

Idea presented by Jonathan Lacoste, President & Co-founder of Jebbit and Kelan Reismeier, Marketing Manager of eBay Marketplaces

Do you have a 360 degree view of your customers? Do you understand their lifestyle, preferences, and attitudes towards your brand? If you did, wouldn’t that be a huge advantage?

Each time a consumer engages with your brand, you have an opportunity to learn more about them. If your company can acquire and store the data properly, brands can essentially build customer profiles that incorporate all habits, preferences, shopping tendencies, and interactions a consumer has with their brand.

At Jebbit, we measure engagement by the depth of the dialogue you have with a customer. We ask questions, and we call the responses we get from a consumer “declared data”. Being able to activate declared data given by the consumer, alongside transactional and third-party data that you may have on your consumer already, will enable you to have a more comprehensive understanding of who your customers are on a personal level.

The more you understand them, the more you can improve your personalized communication efforts, for example, by segmenting out your email list on a more granular level. While we know personalization has proven to increase conversions in the short term, the long-term value lies in the data collected that can be used to retain customers over time as your brand builds trust and shows that you truly understand the consumer.