Mobile shopping is no longer a luxury; it’s a necessity for retailers in order to stay competitive and maintain high customer satisfaction rates. This was revealed at the Mobile Research Summit: Data & Insights 2014.
A study conducted and presented by the E-Tailing group revealed that the mobile commerce experience is still lagging, and retailers are working to overcome the obstacles. With the ever changing needs of consumers, especially as mobile shopping emerges as a necessity to stay competitive, retailers are focusing on responsive web design to meet these needs.
Simply put, responsive web design is “a web design approach aimed at crafting sites to provide an optimal viewing experience – easy reading and navigation with a minimum of resizing, panning, and scrolling – across a wide range of devices, from mobile phones to desktop computer monitors.” According to the E-Tailing Group’s study results, retailers are finding that this is easier said than done.
Approximately 75% of the retailers included in this study stated that mobile is important to their business, though only 61% indicated that they are in the beginning stages of this initiative.
When retailers look at responsive design, there are many challenges to consider. At the time of the study conducted by the E-Tailing Group, only 33% of consumers rated their overall mobile experience as excellent or very good. Below are some of the challenges consumers faced:
While the top concern, security when purchasing on mobile devices, is not completely in the control of the retailer, it is something to keep in mind when educating the consumer on the benefits of mobile shopping. Much like the days when online shopping first emerged, it will take time for consumers to become comfortable with this; educating and creating a sense of security and trust with consumers will go a long way in speeding this up and making consumers more comfortable with shopping on their mobile phones.
Other concerns that top the list are a result of the need for responsive design – ensuring that all aspects of the company’s site are fully functioning across all devices. This can be a challenge, especially in light of the many types of devices now available, varying connection speeds, and different operating systems.
However, retailers have been warned that mobile would be the next method for consumers, and they have been slow to respond. As Lauren Freedman, owner of the E-Tailing Group states, “With mobile’s profile in commerce growing, retailers need to get up to speed quickly. “When it was new, we had the luxury of time. Now it’s like a fight to the kill. We have no luxury of time anymore – for the shopper or the retailer.”
