To Chuck Martin
Mobile shopping has been in the news the last few days, with a host of new studies highlighting the importance of various components within the mobile shopping process.
One study pointed to the importance of the retail store as a major influence in the purchase cycle (Mobile Shoppers & the Hope for Physical Stores).
This was followed by a U.K. study showing that mobile websites are preferred over apps to make a purchase (The Increasing Needs of the Mobile Shopper).
Now coincidentally comes along a research report that neatly ties the aspects of the shopping process together, finding that shoppers want a seamless shopping experience across mobile, online and physical.
The study was conducted by Accenture, which has produced some substantive mobile research over the last several months. This research report, the Accenture Seamless Retail Study, was conducted across 6,000 consumers in eight countries, including 750 from the U.S.
The study found that almost all (89%) of consumers want retailers to let them shop for products in a way most convenient to them, no matter which device or location they use.
About half (49%) say the best thing retailers could do for them is to better integrate the in-store, mobile and online shopping channels.
As regular readers of this column, this no doubt sounds blatantly obvious to you.
And to add weight to the previous study noting the importance of physical stores, the Accenture study found that almost all (94%) shoppers found in-store shopping to be easy.
The downside for mobile commerce is that only a quarter (26%) of consumers found the mobile shopping experience to be easy.
The shopping cycle is being transformed. It was relatively straightforward to distinguish between online and physical shopping but mobile and tablets blur that distinction, since the shopping process becomes continuous.
The mobile shopper is obviously not shopping only via mobile device, though mobile is integral to the process.
The Accenture study found that consumers expect their interaction with retailers to be a customized, uncomplicated and instantaneous, a pretty tall order.
Think we’re almost there yet? Do you find mobile shopping to be easy?
Chuck Martin is editor of mCommerce Daily at MediaPost and writes the daily MobileShopTalk. He is author of “The Third Screen,” “The Smartphone Handbook,” and the soon-to-be-published “Mobile Influence.” He is CEO of Mobile Future Institute and a frequent mobile keynote speaker around the globe.
