How to Dominate mCommerce Part 1

This blog post has been co-authored by Seth Lively, Associate Partner, and Jonathan Leung, Senior Consultant, from the Digital Transformation practice in Infosys’ Retail Sector.

In this series of two blog posts, we will explore how the shopper journey and stages of excellence can be used to effectively plan for retail mobility.

To begin, we’ll look at what mobile solutions mean to a retailer, why they matter, and how shoppers use them.

Why should you care about retail mobile solutions?

The surge in mobile commerce, or m-Commerce, should not come as a surprise to retailers. While personal computer still represents the lion’s share of the shopper’s online journey, the year-over-year trend cannot be overlooked. In February 2015, mobile retail traffic accounted for 46.5% of all online traffic, up 26.5% same period in 2014. Online purchases aside, mobile app usage in general have continued to see significant growth, with overall usage up 58% in 2015. This means that, in addition to possessing a robust m-Commerce website, retailers need to consider other forms of mobile solutions to further engage with shoppers, specifically those that are used in stores.

Along with a stronger digital presence, online retailers are also flocking to the other end of the store spectrum: traditional brick-and-mortar. In most cases, websites look the same, with the true differentiator being the price. Online businesses are beginning to take notice and are building storefronts for stronger customer engagement and experience. Internet giant Google has set up a physical retail space in London, leveraging customer hands-on interaction with its devices and knowledgeable store associates as differentiators. On the other hand, niche retailers such as the New York-based eyewear brand Warby Parker has built 10 stores nationwide to much success, bringing in more than $2,500 per square foot.

While the rise of mobile and the upswing of brick-and-mortar stores may seem like a paradox, these two are synergistically working to become their own trend. It is no longer about the product itself, but the journey that takes the shopper to the point of purchase, and beyond. Shoppers want to be engaged. They want to touch and feel the products. And they are using their personal mobile devices to facilitate their in-store experience.

Understanding retail mobile solutions through Shopper Journey & Stages of Excellence

The shopper journey perspective enables a business to understand how mobile solutions fit in the context of a retail purchase from end-to-end.

Furthermore, by mapping these mobile solutions with The Stages of Excellence (SoE) model, businesses can further qualify the expectation for each solution across each stage. This framework can be used to determine retail mobility goal and competitive benchmark.

Now that we understand how the solutions fit in the context of the Shopper Journey and the SoE, we can combine these two models into a powerful decision tree for CXOs who wish to do more in retail mobility.

In our next post, we’ll look at specific examples of how retailers have used mobile solutions to engage with their customers, and throw the spotlight on the Retail Mobility Decision Framework.