A recent Australian seminar on global retail trends shone the spotlight on the smart phone, Erin O'Loughlin discovers.
For those not yet adjusted to the world of online retail, Sue Evans has bad news. In Australia for her biannual retail and fashion trend forecast, the WGSN senior editor spent a large chunk of her November 2010 presentation emphasising the new frontier in retail: m-commerce, or shopping via a mobile phone.
“We really can't underestimate the power of global mobile use,” Evans said. “It is set for world domination with sales of smart phones expected to overtake PC sales around the globe by 2012. That means that consumers are going to be shopping on their handsets more than they are on their PCs at home.”
For any doubters in the audience, Evans had facts and figures at the ready to convince them of mobile shopping's impending virus-like spread.
“At the World Retail Congress in Berlin last month, Andrew Jennings from Woolworths made the surprising statement that there are more consumers in South Africa with mobile phones than there are with bank accounts,” she said. E-tail giant eBay is currently selling via mobile every two seconds, and Google is designing for the mobile before the personal computer from now on.
While smart phones and accompanying applications – or 'apps' – have been around for some years now, Evans said the emphasis in future ought to be less about branding and more about getting dollars in the till.
“Most [apps] don't have the software capabilities to follow through to a purchase and that's really what we're all in the business for. It's not about fun – it should be about function.”
While a handful of Australian retailers such as Sportsgirl have launched m-commerce platforms, it was the mobile sites of international retailers Marks & Spencer, Debenhams, Asos and Macy's that Evans drew particular attention to. Debenhams' site has been a “particular success”, she said.
“The real clincher is the commerce function because the checkout process has actually been designed for the mobile, the amount of data entry required and the number of steps to actually close your purchase kept to a minimum.
“It also features a barcode scanner, the first to be used by a high street retailer, which makes that app very useful for searching products in-store – you don't have to run around to find a shop assistant to help you find a product.”
Meanwhile fellow UK retailer Marks & Spencer has complemented its “very successful” online store with an m-site.
“You can see the difference,” Evans said, comparing the two for the audience.
“[The m-site] is much cleaner, it's more matter of fact, it's much more functional and you can see it's actually designed for mobile use.”
Since its launch in May 2010, the M&S mobile site has attracted 1.2 million visitors, 10 million page views and 13,000 sales. Customers clearly aren't just buying socks and jocks, with the highest recorded sale measuring £3000. It was for two sofas.
Also in the UK, 10-year-old online fashion retailer Asos launched a mobile platform in 2010 after discovering it had processed 20,000 orders from mobile phones within six months. In the US, Macy's department store's m-commerce site has been geared to detect the kind of mobile phone a customer is using and tailor its presentation to suit that particular model.
With all her cited examples, Evans was keen to make the point that mobile selling is not about the retailer so much as it is about the consumer.
“M-commerce will soon become the new e-commerce and if you see good results from your online presence, you can rest assured it's going to follow through to mobile.
Customers want options – m-commerce is just another way to reach out to your consumer. And remember fun wanes but function always wins. While interactive apps are cool, what does the shopper really want? She actually wants to shop. If you've had a strong web presence, simply pare back and redesign to fit the small screen.”
The way local fashion brands can approach the development of an m-commerce site is to think of it as a two-tier cake, Evans said.
“On the first level your offer should be about the facility to find and share. This is what you should be doing at the very, very least. It concentrates on finding information and research tools.
“Then your top tier should be about buying and support, from checkout to customer service. This is the point when you need to engage and retain your end customer.
“We understand that m-commerce is still relatively new so I think it's best to get level one absolutely right before you go down to level two.”