Ecommerce Hits Milestone

Digital commerce, fueled by growth in mobile purchasing, hit a huge milestone last year.  In 2012, B2C ecommerce spending totaled on $1 trillion globally.  New research has come available that shows it’s not even close to slowing down.

● From 2011 to 2012, global ecommerce grew 21% to reach $1.2 trillion

● By 2016, ecommerce is projected to hit $1.5 trillion worldwide

● In North America, digital spending grew 14% to nearly $365 billion.  Next year it is expected to expand to over $400 billion

● The number of digital buyers in the US is expected to grow from 150 million last year to 175 million in 2016

● China is expected to see the greatest growth.  Ecommerce is projected 65% from 2012 to 2013 and the number of digital customers will rise by nearly 25%

What Does This Mean To You?

What does your ecommerce strategy look like?
Digital purchasing, mcommerce in particular, is rapidly changing and growing. Having a strategy is important, but making sure it’s scalable is equally important.  Things like mobile point of sale will have a dramatic affect on how your business operates.  The international adoption of digital purchasing may open new markets for your business as well.  While we can’t predict the changes that may occur, being nimble and being able to quickly pivot is something that could give your company a competitive advantage in the future. For more information on how to capitalize on ecommerce growth,  please contact your Sun Sentinel representative or:
Julie Otto
Research Manager
954.425.1158
jotto@sunsentinel.com

Source: Emarketer

More Mobile Shoppers

Last week, we had a post that showed the growth of mcommerce dollars and how tablets looked be the go-to mobile shopping device.  Today, we’ll look into how the number of mobile shoppers is expected to rise and its affect on overall ecommerce.

• This year, the number of consumers engaging in mobile commerce is projected to reach 118 million people

• That makes up over 60% of everyone who shops digitally

• In 2016, the number of mobile shoppers will likely hit nearly 175 million consumers.  That’s a jump of nearly 50% in just 3 years

• Mobile consumers will make up 85% of total digital shoppers by 2016

• The number of mobile buyers will also increase. In 2012, 55% of mobile shoppers made a purchase.  By 2014, it is expected that almost 70% of mobile shoppers will buy something on their device.

• The average purchase made on a mobile device is anticipated to jump 54% from 2012 to 2016

What Does This Mean To You?

This one of the clearest examples of why your business needs to invest and stay invested in mobile. More consumers, making more purchases, spending more money.
If your business is not fully engaged in mobile, you are probably losing out on sales and helping your mobilized competition be more successful.
Mobile makes finding your business, researching your products and buying your merchandise quicker and easier.  The more convenient you make doing businesses with you, the more likely you are to be successful.  For more information on how you can grow your business with mobile, please contact your Sun Sentinel representative or:
Julie Otto
Advertising Marketing Manager
954.425.1158
jotto@sunsentinel.com
www.sunsentinel.com/mediakit

Source: eMarketer

Consumers And Mobile Banking Apps

Recently, we’ve published posts on how popular mobile banking and consumer behaviors that will probably come from it. We’ve said many times that the reason why consumers are so dependent on their mobile device is convenience. The same could be said for mobile banking apps. While it may be fun to work “banker’s hours”, those hours don’t make physically visiting financial institutions convenient at all. Online banking and now mobile banking have made banking easier. New research is out that gives information on the percentage of mobile banking and what mobile banking customers are looking for.

• In a recent survey, 44% of consumers had downloaded a banking app

• Among those who have downloaded a mobile banking app, 55% say they use the app more now than when they first downloaded it

• Two-thirds of mobile banking customers expect to receive notifications immediately when their balance is low or are in an insufficient funds situation

• Seven in 10 want to receive communications to help them avoid financial trouble

• Among 18 to 24 year olds, Three-quarters of them expect notifications

• Less than half of mobile banking consumers said they receive balance updates, One-third were notified when their balance was low and three in 10 receive messages when a bill is due

• 13% of users want to get notifications through their app (push notifications), over 20% said they wanted to get notices via SMS text and nearly half wanted to get the information through email

 What Does This Mean To You?
There are a couple of big take-aways from this research. First being that mobile banking may be the first step towards mobile point of sale payment. While mobile payment through sites like Pay Pal have been around for years, there is mounting evidence that making payments directly through your mobile device is on the way. Whether it’s through scanning or NFC, mobile point of sale can make checking out very easy.
The other take-away is that consumers are open to receiving direct notifications from merchants, if they find the content valuable. SMS and email can be key components to a loyalty program and can help you create sales from existing customers. For more information on how mobile technology can help your business better engage prospective customers, please contact your Sun Sentinel representative or:
Julie Otto
Advertising Marketing Manager
954.425.1158
jotto@sunsentinel.com
http://www.sunsentinel.com/mediakit
Source: Mobile Commerce Daily; Wakefield Research

The Mobile Future

Last week, we published a post on the huge growth of mobile shopping year over year.  Mobile allows you put your message in the palms of prospective consumer’s hands on devices they have with them most of the time. New research has come out that looks into the future growth of mcommerce and the devices consumers will be using.

• In 2013, it’s estimated that over $38 billion in mcommerce will take place. Over 60% is projected to take place on tablets

• By 2016, mcommerce is anticipated to reach over $86 billion.

• Over the next few years, tablets are expected to be the main conduit for mobile shopping.  By 2016, $7 out of every $10 in mobile spending will come from a tablet

From now to 2016, mobile sales via tablet are predicted to grow by over 150%.  Mcommerce from smart phones are likely to grow by over 80%

What Does This Mean To You?

Mobile is constantly evolving and that means more ways for you to influence prospective customers & more ways for consumers to find your business and buy things from you.  It also means there are more ways for your competition to take business away from you.  It’s important for you not to think of your marketing plans and mobile tactics as set in stone.  Be ready to pivot as new technology becomes available and consumer’s use of mobile technology changes. Things like mobile payment adoption, more uses for near field communication and increased acceptance of augmented reality can increase convenience for mobile users  and increased engagement with your business.  For more information on how to stay ahead of the mobile curve, please contact your Sun Sentinel representative or:
Julie Otto
Advertising Marketing Manager
954.425.1158
jotto@sunsentinel.com
www.sunsentinel.com/mediakit

Source: eMarketer

Making Mobile Shopping More Convenient

In yesterday’s post, we looked at research that showed what tablet shoppers thought would make their experience better. Today, we’re going to look at overall mobile shopping and the factors that could make it more convenient for consumers.  Convenience is one of the factors driving the rapid growth in mobile.  The convenience of having the device around at all times, the convenience of nearly instantaneous web access and the convenience of mobile sites.  New research is available that looks at what consumers think would make
shopping via mobile more convenient.  This can help your business build a
better mcommerce strategy.

•

he most important thing to mobile shoppers was the finding the products they want to buy – nearly one in four mobile shoppers answered that way

• One in six mobile shoppers wanted the checkout process to be easier, 16% said that it should be easy to check out

• Just over 10% were looking for easier access to their billing information and 8% wanted improved sharing tools

What Does This Mean To You?

As we’ve seen in prior posts, mobile shopping is sharply on the rise.  As consumers are becoming more mobile-ly enabled, they expect more from your mobile offerings. If your site is not convenient to use and navigate, consumers will look to other competitive sites. One of the things to measure is your rate of shopping cart abandonment.  This will help you gauge your checkout process.  The ability to share was lower on the list of mobile “wants” but can be important in the future.  Social is rapidly becoming a mobile-first function.  Sharing is one of the chief functions of social shopping.  The more consumers share your products, the more exposure your brand and products receive. For more information on how to increase the results from your mcommerce tactics, please contact your Sun Sentinel representative or:
Julie Otto
Advertising Marketing Manager
954.425.1158
jotto@sunsentinel.com
www.sunsentinel.com/mediakit

Source: Mobile Commerce Daily; SiteWorx

Creating a Better Tablet Shopping Experience

Earlier this week, we should information on how smart phone shoppers and tablet shoppers differed in their holiday purchasing activities.  Tablet shoppers were more likely than smart phone shoppers to make purchases.  New research has come out that shows what features make tablet shopping more convenient.

• Ease of finding products was the top reason at 22%

• 13% of users said that being able to get reviews and rating were important

• Another 13% wanted an easy checkout system

• 8% indicated that they required access to billing information through the tablet

• 6% thought that social activities such as sharing projects with friends was something wanted

What Does This Mean To You?

Tablet shoppers are important. Not only are they a great demographic,
their numbers are rapidly increasing.   If consumers move away from apps
as a tablet function, you will want to incorporate these attributes
into your WAP functionality.  It’s always a good idea to watch how your
customers are using technology and listen to how you think your
offerings could be improved.  Businesses who respond to customer wants
usually perform better.  Some things they want may not be financially
feasible or technologically possible today, but we never know what the
future may bring as the speed of innovation continues increase. For more information on creating revenue from tablet shoppers, please contact your Sun Sentinel representative or:
Julie Otto
Advertising Marketing Manager
954.425.1158
jotto@sunsentinel.com
www.sunsentinel.com/mediakit

Source: Mobile Commerce Daily; SiteWorx

How Consumers Used Mobile Devices Over The Holidays

From prior posts, we’ve chronicled information on much mobile shopping activity was done this past holiday season. Today, we’ll look at what types of shopping activity were done via smart phone and tablet.  This information can help you fine tune your mobile strategies for the future.

• One-third of smart phone owners used their device to look up store hours, directions and locations. 20% of tablet owners looked for the same information

• 19% of smart phone owners and 18% of tablet owners read product reviews on their devices respectively

• Tablet owners were 28% more likely than smart phone owners to compare prices on their devices

• The biggest difference was in making a purchase.  13% of smart phone owners bought something over the holidays on their device.  19% of tablet owners completed a sale on their device

What Does This Mean To You?

While smart phones and tablets are both mobile devices, how consumers use them is different.  Smart phones are used much more often in-store or in transit than tablets.  This makes sense – it’s bad enough to see people drive and use their smart phone, image them trying to type on a tablet and drive.  Also, while many tablets are 3G & 4G enabled, many more are run from wifi.
Research suggests that consumers use tablet more to complete the sale.  Users are checking prices and buying items more often on tablets.  One of the big buzz words you’ll be hearing more about this year is device agnostic.  It basically means that that users will have the same digital experience on whatever device they connect with.  Layouts will automatically scale to the screen size of the device that are accessing on no matter if it’s a smart phone, tablet or phablet (new buzzword alert. A phablet is described as a smaller sized tablet – usually with a 5 inch screen).  These design improvements can help you better display your merchandise to mobile users.  For more information on how your mobile site can contribute more to your bottom line, please contact your Sun Sentinel representative or:
Julie Otto
Advertising Marketing Manager
954.425.1158
jotto@sunsentinel.com
www.sunsentinel.com/mediakit

Source: Mobile Commerce Daily; SiteWorx

Mobile Banking Set To Grow Greatly

Mobile devices have become our go-to tool for many different activities that directly affect the operation of many businesses. The next horizon looks to be mobile banking. A new report chronicles just how many consumers will be using mobile devices for banking over the next few years.
 • It’s estimated that globally nearly 600 million mobile device owners will engage in mobile banking in 2013
• By 2017, that number is expected to grow to one billion users, or 15% of all mobile device owners
• The US, Western Europe and China are expected to be the leaders in mobile banking
• Many financial institutions are becoming more mobile-ly engaged. Recent research showed that banks are allocating nearly a third of their marketing budgets to mobile.
What Does This Mean To You?
There are 2 takeaways. The more functions that mobile devices perform, the more important they become to users. The second point is mobile point of purchase. The ability to make a purchase with a mobile device opens up a world of convenience for consumers. It also could make in-store shopping easier & quicker while stemming the “showrooming” tide. It would be wise to start looking into mobile point of sale options for your business. As the activity starts to spread, it could become one of the convenience issues that pushes consumers towards one retailer vs. another. For more information on how to make more revenue with mobile, please contact your Sun Sentinel representative or:
Julie Otto
Advertising Marketing Manager
954.425.1158
jotto@sunsentinel.com
http://www.sunsentinel.com/mediakit
Source: Mobile Commerce Daily; Juniper Research; Forrester Research

Why Your Web Site Is Important

Think of how many digital entities your business may have.  Besides your web site, you probably have a Facebook page, maybe a twitter feed or a Pinterest board.  You may have a presence on a local review site or electronic listing page.  That doesn’t even count the amount of user generated content that could be floating around.  Consumers can probably find you in many different places – some you control and some you don’t.  Recently released information shows the sources that online shoppers trust when researching products to buy.  This information is extremely important in making sure potential customers get the right information about your business and the products you sell.

• Nearly half of online shoppers said that a manufacturer or brand’s website was their most trusted source of information

• More than one-third said that they put trust in articles they found from a search engine

• 31% said that they trusted experts on certain topics

• Over 20% said that mainstream news sites were trustworthy for brand information

• Roughly 10% put their trust in links friends posted on social networks or information from blogs

What Does This Mean To You?

Overall, nearly 95% of consumers said they trusted some kind of online information when making online shopping product decisions.  The question is how do  you make sure they are getting the right information about your organization.

• Employ a robust search strategy – Your website is the most trusted source for online shoppers.  If you don’t have a strong search strategy, who knows what potential shoppers may see when they enter your name into a search engine.

• Monitor your social reputation – Social media can be a great referral tactic and engagement tool.  But if consumers are seeing negative information about your business, there is a good chance they will not do business with you.

• Utilize testimonials – Testimonials can be very powerful.  While you may not be able to get experts to extol the virtues of your business or product, people trust the opinions of others.  If you have a loyal customer, it would be beneficial to incorporate kind words from them in your web site.  Also, treat social media “likes” as virtual testimonials.  Because their social friends and followers will see it as well, a “like” or positive post can influence your perception among a large group of potential shoppers.

• Dot your Is and cross your Ts – When was the last time you took a critical look at your web site?
Is it outdated? Is all the product information current?
Can people easily find your contact information?
Are there typos?
Is it easily navigated?

Your web site, in many ways, is your front door to many consumers.  You need to make sure it’s easy to find, easy to navigate and potential shoppers can easily see the value of all the things you have to offer.  For more information on strategies to help you create a stronger ecommerce revenue stream, please contact your Sun Sentinel representative or:
Julie Otto
Advertising Marketing Manager
954.425.1158
jotto@sunsentinel.com
www.sunsentinel.com/mediakit

Source: nRelate; eMarketer

Why Consumers Are Using Mobile Devices In-Store

n many studies, the top reason consumers are using their devices
in-store is to comparison shop. This is the first step in “showrooming”.
While it would be near impossible to stop customers from
“showrooming”, it is not the only reason why consumers engage in mobile activity while shopping. A new report looked at reasons beyond comparison shopping and  found takeaways that could help your business retain more in-store sales.

Nearly two-thirds of 18-34 year olds and over half of 35-49 year olds used a mobile device for shopping related activities. Even one-third of Baby-Boomers did the same

• 46% of 18-34 year olds and 36% of 35-49 year olds said it’s faster to use their mobile device to find product information than ask a store associate

• Just one in five Baby-Boomers said it was easier to get information off their mobile device vs. a store associate

• Baby boomers are four times more likely to increase their spending when assisted by an associate than by consulting self-service technology

• Overall, nearly half of consumers reported that a helpful associate motivates them to spend more in-store

What Does This Mean To You?

Customer service may be one of the keys to minimizing “showrooming”. While it will probably never eliminate it, a great consumer experience will help keep spending in your physical location. In fact, an educated, helpful staff could lead to customers spending more money.
What training does your staff undertake?
Do you have a staff training plan for ongoing learning?
How knowledgeable are they about the products you sell?
Would you consider them a helpful resource for shoppers?
An investment in training will pay off in saved sales. In tomorrow’s post we’ll look at how store associates feel about mobile, technology and its impact on customer satisfaction. For more information on the best ways your business can employ mobile solutions and keep more sales in-store, please contact your Sun Sentinel representative or:
Julie Otto
Advertising Marketing Manager
954.425.1158
jotto@sunsentinel.com
www.sunsentinel.com/mediakit

Source: Motorola