Merchants have learned the lesson from the holiday shopping season and are moving forward with smartphone transactions.
Retailers have been viewing the statistics that have been compiled from 2012 and its heaviest shopping season, and it has been made clear that mobile payments will be a necessary part of 2013 if they wish to remain competitive.
Consumers are beginning to indicate that they want to be able to do more in-store with their smartphones.
This, according from the study performed together by Shop.org and Forrester Research, called the “State of Retailing” for 2013. The survey they conducted indicated that retailers are seeking to be able to connect with consumers no matter where they happen to be or what they are looking to purchase. They want to provide those consumers with a better experience and enhance their web conversions and loyalty across every possible device.
Mobile payments and other options were a primary focus identified by retailers who took the survey.
Fifty one percent of the participating retailers said that their top priority in 2013 had to do with optimization, including mobile payments, checkout optimization, the smartphone and tablet experience, as well as testing their enhancements on the product detail pages.
Forty three percent of retailers made both tablets and mobile part of their leading three priorities this year. Those organizations expressed intentions to invest in either new or better apps, mobile payments, smartphone and/or tablet optimized websites, analytics, traffic, and growth of conversion rates.
According to Vicki Cantrell, the executive director at Shop.org, “Retailers have responded to rapidly evolving customer use of mobile devices, dedicating much of the past 12 to 18 months to developing and testing rich mobile offerings for both customers and store associates.” She also went on to point out that “While direct mobile commerce is still small, mobile services are now an established and significant part of the shopping experience.”
She also indicated that retailers are seeking to make their customer experiences more holistic across multiple channels, using techniques such as mobile payments and many other in order to generate repeat business, boost conversion rates, and take a slice of the customer demand from markets on an international level.