M-commerce is still ‘work in progress’ for many retailers

Have European retailers mastered m-commerce? After a decade of wrestling with the technology, it seems the majority aren’t there yet. It’s true that retailers from Amazon to Zara have successfully turned phones into shopping channels, and brands as diverse as Burberry and Tesco have demonstrated the power of phones as social marketing tools.

But according to new research from the organisers of Mobile Shopping, there are a great many stumbling blocks hampering m-commerce progress. The survey of 100 European digital and ecommerce retail executives found that 63% of respondents have yet to successfully achieve a mobile-first mentality internally when working on digital design strategy. This despite the fact that almost half (42%) generate over 30% of sales through their mobile app and mobile websites.

Culture change required

The top challenge to m-commerce advancement, as reported by these executives, is ‘company cultural mind set’, closely followed by issues with ‘payment options’ and ‘unsatisfactory UX designs’. Other troubles include ‘lack of in-house mobile tech talent’ and ‘struggling to drive up mobile conversion rates’.

Checkout on mobile seems to be a major sticking point. It’s worrying that 40% of respondents had a 50-70% drop off rate at the checkout/payment point of the user journey.

Maximising Mobile report Ease the learning curve

Retailers facing the next stage of m-commerce investment, fine-tuning and growth will find the ‘Maximising Mobile’ report an excellent benchmarking tool. It provides valuable insight into where the industry is succeeding and struggling. What’s certain is that we’re on the cusp of a big push towards m-commerce excellence in Europe. The report shows that 58% of respondents already allocate over 20% of their digital budget towards optimizing the m-commerce offering, but also that a massive 83% plan to increase this investment over the next 12 months.

Investment is to be welcomed. But clearly issues around boardroom mindset, technology and talent must also be overcome, and the more the industry can learn from shared ideas and best practice, the better. The Mobile Shopping two-day conference and exhibition taking place early in 2018 will tackle all these issues, bringing together the sharpest minds in m-commerce from around the world to advise and inspire.

And there will also be a focus on the next wave of tech and behavioural developments affecting m-commerce – social commerce, wearables, mobile payments, the convergence of offline and online, and more.

Smart phone usage is a social phenomenon on steroids. Global sales of handsets are still growing with Gartner reporting this year that in 2016 overall, smartphone sales to end users totaled nearly 1.5 billion units, an increase of 5% from 2015. Things are moving fast, and being left behind is not an option. For those retailers who want to unlock the full potential of m-commerce, Mobile Shopping is an event not to be missed.

You can download the Maximising Mobile benchmarking report here.

Mobile Shopping is taking place on the 31st January and 1 February 2018 in Hilton London Bankside. Find all the details here.

Retail Connections readers can get 15% off the total price of a ticket to Mobile Shopping by using the code MSRC18 when booking here.

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