Study shows merchants must focus on mobile shopping trends to survive.
New research performed by Stibo Systems is indicating that if brands and retailers intend to continue into the future, they will need to keep up with the growing mobile commerce expectations held by their consumers.
The mobile shopping trends report on the study showed that there has been an overall increase of 10 percent over the last year in the amount that consumers shop using their smartphones and tablets. This data was supported by another study performed by Gartner, which estimated that by 2016, there will have been a global increase in tablets by 655 million.
Gartner research showed there will be a 100 percent increase in tablet adoption this year.
Though 66 percent of online shoppers still say that they prefer the laptop, 20 percent are now saying that they would rather use mobile commerce on their smartphones or tablets.
According to the Stibo UK managing director, Mark Thorpe, “As the use of mobile devices becomes more ubiquitous in today’s world, it becomes crucial for retailers to meet customers’ rising expectations surrounding m-commerce.”
The 2012 UK Consumer retail survey by Stibo Systems did notice, though, that there was a decrease in customer satisfaction among those individuals shopping with their smartphones and tablets. The study indicated that retailers are required to create a much more well rounded multi-channel strategy with improved data management if they want to make sure that their customers remain satisfied and continue these interactions.
Thorpe indicated that retailers need to make sure that their processes for master data management are the core of the strategy for multichannel sales. He underscored the point made by the survey which stated that when consumers are shopping – no matter which channel they use – they demand consistent product information. By failing to provide this in a mobile commerce strategy, the potential opportunity could be lost.
According to Thorpe, there is an ongoing need for retailers to keep up with mobile shopping trends.
He said that they must use an efficient and effective product data management solution if they intend to see mobile commerce success.
