67% of wealthy consumers shop from their mobile devices.
This finding came from a study conducted by the Luxury Institute, which surveyed respondents who reported an average net worth of $2.8 million. The results indicate the popularity of mobile shopping among patrons of luxury brands and highlight the need for those brands to provide high quality, mobile commerce opportunities to their customers.
Many luxury brands have been slow to create dedicated mobile websites, choosing to remain exclusively focused on their traditional in-store and desktop/laptop brand efforts. However, the added difficulty in interaction this causes for mobile shoppers does not result in the kind of “exclusivity” that adds to a brand’s mystique. It does create a negative shopping experience that reflects poorly on the brand, causing it to appear difficult, vaguely dated and out of touch ‒ not the sort of impression that forward-thinking brands want to propagate.
Fortunately, AEG Media Group now makes it simple for luxury brands to provide the same high level of quality to customers in the mobile channel that they provide in-store and via desktops/laptops. AEG Media Group can help brands create and manage their rich mobile engagement sites. Brands can also leverage the mobile site creation platform used by AEG, to design and manage their sites in-house.
Creating a dedicated mobile web site can dramatically increase traffic, especially for publications whose readership expects to find the same level of content in the mobile channel as they find through their laptops.
According to a recent Mobile Marketer article, mobile optimization led to a 50% increase in traffic for Harpers Bazaar.
This increase in traffic strongly suggests that readers will gladly access content from their mobile browsers ‒ if that content is presented in a mobile-optimized format.
Interestingly, it also suggests that users will rush to access a mobile web site instead of a native mobile app.
You might be surprised to learn that the magazine already had a native mobile app before their site was optimized for mobile. You might wonder why they would create a mobile web site if they already had a native app. However, if you take a look at how their native app is performing,the new mobile web site makes sense:
The average iPhone ranking for the Harpers Bazaar app is 2.5 out of 5 stars, and almost all of the comments are negative:
“Can’t even open it !!! It crashes every time. May spend a little more on the app I payed enough money for the quality not crap”
“Nothing about this is free and I can’t remove this off of my screen please Apple make it go away or actually make it “Free” since you state it is but truly is not at all!!!!”
“How do I delete this? Someone help it’s so frustrating”
What’s more is that there are only 75 rankings, suggesting that not many people actually downloaded the app.
A lot of online content providers have, like Harpers Bazaar, created “free” native apps for their mobile audience that allow greater access to content through paid upgrades. However, this strategy can upset mobile users who go to all of that trouble of finding the app in the app store and waiting for it to download to their phone, only to find that to access the content they want, they are required to pay money. In this case, the situation is made worse because some of the unhappy users had trouble deleting the app’s icon off of their screen. So, not only did the mobile audience feel scammed after downloading the disappointing native app, but they also felt frustrated that they couldn’t delete the useless thing.
This is a BAD user experience that reflects poorly on the brand.
BUT: Contrast that experience with Harper Bazaar‘s new mobile web site experience.
First of all, it’s easy to access. All you have to do is type “harpersbazaar.com” into the mobile browser or click on the first link that comes up in a Google search, and you’re automatically redirected to the mobile site. No need to search through the app store, wait through a long download and then spend time figuring out how to delete the icon when you realize it’s not what you expected.
Second, since mobile web sites do not have to be downloaded from an app store, there are no problems with unsuccessful downloads or crashing apps.
Third, Harper Bazaar‘s new mobile web site is filled with optimized and 100% free content ‒ no need to upgrade, so users don’t feel scammed.
Choosing to fill a dedicated mobile web site with optimized content was a good move for Harpers Bazaar, as evidenced by the dramatic increase in mobile traffic. Other online publications who are still evaluating their mobile strategy should look to the mobile web first to provide their audiences with access to content. A native app may be useful as an add-on, but for straightforward, easy access to content, mobile web sites are the way to go.
Email opens from mobile devices grewby34% in the last six months of 2011. This increase was seen as email opens decreased on webmail (-11%) and PCs (-9.5%), according to a recent study by Return Path.
The mobile web may not be the first thing you associate with email, but the trend in mobile email browsing suggests that the relationship between the mobile web and email is a strong one. If mobile users open their email and find links that pique their interest, what will they find on the other side of those links? Hopefully, they won’t find a web site built with a desktop user in mind. Getting those clicks from email ads is a first step, but what happens after the click is even more important. At that point, users should be directed to a web site that is optimized for their device. Otherwise, they are likely to find the destination site’s interface too frustrating to spend much time on, which will lead them to abandon the site. Instead of making their way through a successful conversion, they will give up and move on to the next message in their inbox.
Fortunately, there is an easy way to prevent that from happening. AEG offers mobile-optimized landing pages and forms that can connect companies with mobile users through email. Now that email is more mobile than ever, that is good news for any company that markets through email.
The results of the Siegel+Gale Global Brand Simplicity Index: 2011 show that brands who offer a “simple” engagement experience to consumers perform better than those whose interactions are perceived as more complicated. In establishing simplicity ranking for this index, consideration was given to:
Transparency
Ease of access
Clarity of presentation
According to the study, simplicity in these areas can have a huge impact on brand performance, particularly in the customer loyalty department. Part of the reason for this, says Siegel+Gale, is that consumers equate simplicity with transparency and honesty, while they are often suspicious of brands that seem complicated. In line with that reasoning, the study reports that 79.4% of people in the U.S. are more likely to recommend a simpler brand.
Simplicity is especially important in the mobile channel. New business channels are, by default, less trusted than traditional, established channels, even when they are perfectly safe. Making them as simple to engage with as possible can ease consumer anxiety about the channel and increase consumer confidence in and affinity for the brand.
Companies who want to encourage further engagement and establish a loyal following among their mobile end-users should optimize their web sites for the mobile channel to provide simple, yet powerful engagement experiences.
Superfluous information and broken applications in a non-optimized format not only discourage user interaction with the brand via the mobile channel, but they also call into question the trustworthiness of the brand overall.
To maintain consumer loyalty in an increasingly mobile market, brands should make engagement simple for their mobile consumers.
Percentage rise in mCommerce sales predicted for 2012 (taking total mCommerce sales to $11.6 billion). – eMarketer
That is an enormous increase! Consumers are trying to purchase via mobile – although, many brands may not have a way for them to do this. The market is moving to the consumer’s mobile device.
75
Percentage of consumers who have researched a product on their mobile devices but have bought those products online or in-store. – Limelight Networks
The mobile web is a huge help to consumers. For many, a smartphones is their number one shopping companion, allowing them to purchase but also to research products anywhere and anytime.
77
Percentage of consumers who use their handset to scan mobile barcodes while shopping. – Ogilvy
Again, the mobile web is conducive to the many types of shopping activities, in which customers are engaged. The high scan rate on QR Codes is revealing of the consumer’s interest in finding product information, comparisons and deals through their smartphones.
43
Percentage of mobile device owners who regularly make 2+ purchases per month via mobile. – Myxer
Myxer also noted that those who regulary make 2+ purchases a month via mobile purchase from multiple vendors online. This leads us to believe that mobile Web browsing is important to these shoppers. Instead of using 1 vendor’s app to make purchases, they are likely browsing the web for a diverse range of products.
At the 2012 Mobile World Congress, John Donahoe, President & CEO of eBay, Inc. talked with the Wall Street Journal about the importance of mobile for retailers.
Donahoe emphasized that since the line between online and offline has been blurred, making a distinction between Commerce and eCommerce [or mCommerce, for that matter] doesn’t make sense anymore.* Consumers perform traditionally offline shopping activities online now and the online world has created new shopping activities that are becoming indispensable to consumers. They access information about products, compare pricing, make purchases, write reviews, share info on social networks, map store locations, etc. from their mobile devices.
According to Donahoe, this dynamic is as disruptive to the retail industry as it has been (and continues to be) to the media industry, and the extent of the disruption is yet to be fully realized: “I believe you will seemore change in how consumers shop and pay in the next three years than we’ve seen in the last ten,” said Donahoe.
Because mobile allows consumers to shop for “what they want, where they want, when they want,” it is becoming the de facto channel through which customers engage with retailers. Consequently, retailers must optimize their presences in that channel in order to make mobile engagement as seamless and second-nature an experience as possible for the end-user.
This is not just for the eBays of the world. Nor is it for only specific types of retailers. eBay is receiving 3,500 automobile orders a week from mobile devices! Mobile retail is product-agnostic; consumers are looking for every kind of product imaginable on the mobile web, from cars to candles, from clothing to cotton balls. All retailers – whatever the type and whatever the size – need a strong mobile presence to stay competitive.
* If you’re wondering if that little “e” in “eBay” will have lost its meaning in a few years (as a consequence of this blurring between online and offline), it already has: “eBay” was shortened from “Echo Bay;” so, the “e” in “eBay” is not the same as the “e” in “eCommerce,” which stands for “electronic.”
Two recent studies give an interesting view of the short- and long-term mobility landscapes. The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) publicized its findings on consumer planning for mCommerce in 2012, and the Global System for Mobile commmunications Association (GSMA) released predictions for mobile in 2020.
2012
“The future of mobile commerce is very promising,” said Jessica Boothe, manager of strategic research, CEA. “Consumers are open to new technologies as they continue to evolve and develop. With the growth of mobile devices, mobile commerce will play a more integral role in the everyday shopping habits of consumers, especially as they continue to seek bargains and comparison shop.”
Mobile Purchases
Mobile device owners intend to make more purchases via mobile in 2012 than they made in 2011. Mobile consumers plan to spend $575on mobile purchases, on average, in the next 12 months.
Mobile Coupons
They also intend to perform more shopping and couponing activities from their smartphones:
32% plan to search for mobile coupons on the mobile web
30% percent plan to use or redeem mobile coupons from their devices
29% percent plan to search for mobile coupons from email
2020
Mobile is growing quickly, and by 2020, GSMA says, the number of Internet-connected, mobile devices will grow from 6.5 billiontoover 12 billion.
Mobile Healthcare
According to the study, in 2020, the global healthcare space alone could recognize $660 billion in cost savings and improved services from the deployment of mHealth solutions, helping to reduce the cost of universal healthcare
News
Mobile a Necessity for Luxury Brands
Posted by aegmedia on Mar 26, 2012 in Best Practices, Industry News, News, Uncategorized | Comments Off
67% of wealthy consumers shop from their mobile devices.
This finding came from a study conducted by the Luxury Institute, which surveyed respondents who reported an average net worth of $2.8 million. The results indicate the popularity of mobile shopping among patrons of luxury brands and highlight the need for those brands to provide high quality, mobile commerce opportunities to their customers.
Many luxury brands have been slow to create dedicated mobile websites, choosing to remain exclusively focused on their traditional in-store and desktop/laptop brand efforts. However, the added difficulty in interaction this causes for mobile shoppers does not result in the kind of “exclusivity” that adds to a brand’s mystique. It does create a negative shopping experience that reflects poorly on the brand, causing it to appear difficult, vaguely dated and out of touch ‒ not the sort of impression that forward-thinking brands want to propagate.
Fortunately, AEG Media Group now makes it simple for luxury brands to provide the same high level of quality to customers in the mobile channel that they provide in-store and via desktops/laptops. AEG Media Group can help brands create and manage their rich mobile engagement sites. Brands can also leverage the mobile site creation platform used by AEG, to design and manage their sites in-house.
Mobile Audiences Want Mobile Websites
Posted by aegmedia on Mar 19, 2012 in Best Practices, Industry News, News, Uncategorized | Comments Off
Creating a dedicated mobile web site can dramatically increase traffic, especially for publications whose readership expects to find the same level of content in the mobile channel as they find through their laptops.
According to a recent Mobile Marketer article, mobile optimization led to a 50% increase in traffic for Harpers Bazaar.
This increase in traffic strongly suggests that readers will gladly access content from their mobile browsers ‒ if that content is presented in a mobile-optimized format.
Interestingly, it also suggests that users will rush to access a mobile web site instead of a native mobile app.
You might be surprised to learn that the magazine already had a native mobile app before their site was optimized for mobile. You might wonder why they would create a mobile web site if they already had a native app. However, if you take a look at how their native app is performing,the new mobile web site makes sense:
The average iPhone ranking for the Harpers Bazaar app is 2.5 out of 5 stars, and almost all of the comments are negative:
“Can’t even open it !!! It crashes every time. May spend a little more on the app I payed enough money for the quality not crap”
“Nothing about this is free and I can’t remove this off of my screen please Apple make it go away or actually make it “Free” since you state it is but truly is not at all!!!!”
“How do I delete this? Someone help it’s so frustrating”
What’s more is that there are only 75 rankings, suggesting that not many people actually downloaded the app.
A lot of online content providers have, like Harpers Bazaar, created “free” native apps for their mobile audience that allow greater access to content through paid upgrades. However, this strategy can upset mobile users who go to all of that trouble of finding the app in the app store and waiting for it to download to their phone, only to find that to access the content they want, they are required to pay money. In this case, the situation is made worse because some of the unhappy users had trouble deleting the app’s icon off of their screen. So, not only did the mobile audience feel scammed after downloading the disappointing native app, but they also felt frustrated that they couldn’t delete the useless thing.
This is a BAD user experience that reflects poorly on the brand.
BUT: Contrast that experience with Harper Bazaar‘s new mobile web site experience.
First of all, it’s easy to access. All you have to do is type “harpersbazaar.com” into the mobile browser or click on the first link that comes up in a Google search, and you’re automatically redirected to the mobile site. No need to search through the app store, wait through a long download and then spend time figuring out how to delete the icon when you realize it’s not what you expected.
Second, since mobile web sites do not have to be downloaded from an app store, there are no problems with unsuccessful downloads or crashing apps.
Third, Harper Bazaar‘s new mobile web site is filled with optimized and 100% free content ‒ no need to upgrade, so users don’t feel scammed.
Choosing to fill a dedicated mobile web site with optimized content was a good move for Harpers Bazaar, as evidenced by the dramatic increase in mobile traffic. Other online publications who are still evaluating their mobile strategy should look to the mobile web first to provide their audiences with access to content. A native app may be useful as an add-on, but for straightforward, easy access to content, mobile web sites are the way to go.
Mobile Optimization Important for Emails
Posted by aegmedia on Mar 16, 2012 in Best Practices, Industry News, News | Comments Off
Email opens from mobile devices grew by 34% in the last six months of 2011. This increase was seen as email opens decreased on webmail (-11%) and PCs (-9.5%), according to a recent study by Return Path.
The mobile web may not be the first thing you associate with email, but the trend in mobile email browsing suggests that the relationship between the mobile web and email is a strong one. If mobile users open their email and find links that pique their interest, what will they find on the other side of those links? Hopefully, they won’t find a web site built with a desktop user in mind. Getting those clicks from email ads is a first step, but what happens after the click is even more important. At that point, users should be directed to a web site that is optimized for their device. Otherwise, they are likely to find the destination site’s interface too frustrating to spend much time on, which will lead them to abandon the site. Instead of making their way through a successful conversion, they will give up and move on to the next message in their inbox.
Fortunately, there is an easy way to prevent that from happening. AEG offers mobile-optimized landing pages and forms that can connect companies with mobile users through email. Now that email is more mobile than ever, that is good news for any company that markets through email.
Simplicity & the Mobile Channel
Posted by aegmedia on Mar 13, 2012 in Best Practices, Industry News, News | Comments Off
The results of the Siegel+Gale Global Brand Simplicity Index: 2011 show that brands who offer a “simple” engagement experience to consumers perform better than those whose interactions are perceived as more complicated. In establishing simplicity ranking for this index, consideration was given to:
Transparency
Ease of access
Clarity of presentation
According to the study, simplicity in these areas can have a huge impact on brand performance, particularly in the customer loyalty department. Part of the reason for this, says Siegel+Gale, is that consumers equate simplicity with transparency and honesty, while they are often suspicious of brands that seem complicated. In line with that reasoning, the study reports that 79.4% of people in the U.S. are more likely to recommend a simpler brand.
Simplicity is especially important in the mobile channel. New business channels are, by default, less trusted than traditional, established channels, even when they are perfectly safe. Making them as simple to engage with as possible can ease consumer anxiety about the channel and increase consumer confidence in and affinity for the brand.
Companies who want to encourage further engagement and establish a loyal following among their mobile end-users should optimize their web sites for the mobile channel to provide simple, yet powerful engagement experiences.
Superfluous information and broken applications in a non-optimized format not only discourage user interaction with the brand via the mobile channel, but they also call into question the trustworthiness of the brand overall.
To maintain consumer loyalty in an increasingly mobile market, brands should make engagement simple for their mobile consumers.
mCommerce: New Numbers
Posted by aegmedia on Mar 9, 2012 in Best Practices, Industry News, News, Uncategorized | Comments Off
The Mobile Commerce Outlook 2012 from Mobile Commerce Daily was just released. Below are some of the numbers that stood out:
73.1
Percentage rise in mCommerce sales predicted for 2012 (taking total mCommerce sales to $11.6 billion). – eMarketer
That is an enormous increase! Consumers are trying to purchase via mobile – although, many brands may not have a way for them to do this. The market is moving to the consumer’s mobile device.
75
Percentage of consumers who have researched a product on their mobile devices but have bought those products online or in-store. – Limelight Networks
The mobile web is a huge help to consumers. For many, a smartphones is their number one shopping companion, allowing them to purchase but also to research products anywhere and anytime.
77
Percentage of consumers who use their handset to scan mobile barcodes while shopping. – Ogilvy
Again, the mobile web is conducive to the many types of shopping activities, in which customers are engaged. The high scan rate on QR Codes is revealing of the consumer’s interest in finding product information, comparisons and deals through their smartphones.
43
Percentage of mobile device owners who regularly make 2+ purchases per month via mobile. – Myxer
Myxer also noted that those who regulary make 2+ purchases a month via mobile purchase from multiple vendors online. This leads us to believe that mobile Web browsing is important to these shoppers. Instead of using 1 vendor’s app to make purchases, they are likely browsing the web for a diverse range of products.
What They Want, Where They Want, When They Want
Posted by aegmedia on Mar 8, 2012 in Best Practices, Industry News, News | Comments Off
At the 2012 Mobile World Congress, John Donahoe, President & CEO of eBay, Inc. talked with the Wall Street Journal about the importance of mobile for retailers.
Donahoe emphasized that since the line between online and offline has been blurred, making a distinction between Commerce and eCommerce [or mCommerce, for that matter] doesn’t make sense anymore.* Consumers perform traditionally offline shopping activities online now and the online world has created new shopping activities that are becoming indispensable to consumers. They access information about products, compare pricing, make purchases, write reviews, share info on social networks, map store locations, etc. from their mobile devices.
According to Donahoe, this dynamic is as disruptive to the retail industry as it has been (and continues to be) to the media industry, and the extent of the disruption is yet to be fully realized: “I believe you will see more change in how consumers shop and pay in the next three years than we’ve seen in the last ten,” said Donahoe.
Because mobile allows consumers to shop for “what they want, where they want, when they want,” it is becoming the de facto channel through which customers engage with retailers. Consequently, retailers must optimize their presences in that channel in order to make mobile engagement as seamless and second-nature an experience as possible for the end-user.
This is not just for the eBays of the world. Nor is it for only specific types of retailers. eBay is receiving 3,500 automobile orders a week from mobile devices! Mobile retail is product-agnostic; consumers are looking for every kind of product imaginable on the mobile web, from cars to candles, from clothing to cotton balls. All retailers – whatever the type and whatever the size – need a strong mobile presence to stay competitive.
* If you’re wondering if that little “e” in “eBay” will have lost its meaning in a few years (as a consequence of this blurring between online and offline), it already has: “eBay” was shortened from “Echo Bay;” so, the “e” in “eBay” is not the same as the “e” in “eCommerce,” which stands for “electronic.”Mobile Future: 2012 and 2020
Posted by aegmedia on Mar 1, 2012 in Best Practices, Industry News, News | Comments Off
Two recent studies give an interesting view of the short- and long-term mobility landscapes. The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) publicized its findings on consumer planning for mCommerce in 2012, and the Global System for Mobile commmunications Association (GSMA) released predictions for mobile in 2020.
2012
“The future of mobile commerce is very promising,” said Jessica Boothe, manager of strategic research, CEA. “Consumers are open to new technologies as they continue to evolve and develop. With the growth of mobile devices, mobile commerce will play a more integral role in the everyday shopping habits of consumers, especially as they continue to seek bargains and comparison shop.”
Mobile Purchases
Mobile device owners intend to make more purchases via mobile in 2012 than they made in 2011. Mobile consumers plan to spend $575 on mobile purchases, on average, in the next 12 months.
Mobile Coupons
They also intend to perform more shopping and couponing activities from their smartphones:
32% plan to search for mobile coupons on the mobile web
30% percent plan to use or redeem mobile coupons from their devices
29% percent plan to search for mobile coupons from email
2020
Mobile is growing quickly, and by 2020, GSMA says, the number of Internet-connected, mobile devices will grow from 6.5 billion to over 12 billion.
Mobile Healthcare
According to the study, in 2020, the global healthcare space alone could recognize $660 billion in cost savings and improved services from the deployment of mHealth solutions, helping to reduce the cost of universal healthcare