George is a thought leader on eCommerce and is the CEO of Rimm-Kaufman Group whereas Linda Bustos needs no introduction.
George : Do you see anything new that could change the world of eCommerce?
Linda: Mobile. Mobile commerce is not a new channel, rather a new screen that consumers are going to become more and more comfortable with. No longer do you need to be at your desk or at home to transact online. More people own a mobile phone than a personal computer, and people have their mobile devices wherever they are at all hours of the day. And new devices like Kindle and iPad make the user experiences on mobile devices much better than tiny smart-phone screens. So ebusinesses will need to understand mobile design and usability for their websites and also consider what applications will be most helpful to their customers. We’re not at critical mass yet, but we will be very soon.
George: How important is having a mobile strategy in 2010?
Linda: The last 3 years have been dubbed the “Year of the Mobile” it seems – and mobile commerce has certainly grabbed the attention of the largest retailers. Every month we hear of Internet Retailer 500 companies launching new mobile sites, redesigns or mobile applications.
While I still don’t think customers are ready to purchase online through mobile sites (biggest reasons are fear of data security and usability issues), I think it’s important for retailers to get their feet wet now to get over the learning curve. Having a mobile presence is also helpful for customer research on-the-go, and can be very helpful for customer service (think of order-tracking, back-in-stock and in-store pickup notifications, etc). Even if you don’t drive sales through the smaller screen, it can add value to your business, especially if you’re a multichannel retailer with brick-and-mortar stores.
My thoughts:
It is high time, big online retailers take the deep dive and traditional retailers use this channel seriously.
Monday, April 5, 2010
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