benchmarking m-commerce best practices for sites and apps

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Benchmarking 125 Mcommerce

Sites and Apps across

13 Retail CategoriesA LIVE Mobile Commerce Daily webinar

presented May 24, 2011 by

and sponsored by

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TODAY‟S PANELISTS

Bernardine Wu

CEO, FitForCommerce

[email protected]

Dave Sikora

CEO, Digby

[email protected]

Janet Jaiswal

Mobile Product Mgr. and Sr. Dir., Product Marketing, TRUSTe

[email protected]

Moderated by Mickey Alam Khan

Editor in Chief, Mobile Marketer and Mobile Commerce Daily

[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]




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About FitForCommerce

• FitForCommerce is a consultancy founded to help online businesses „figure out what they need and how/where to find it‟

– Team of former multichannel retailers, marketers, technologists and service providers, with hands-on expertise in eCommerce and mCommerce

• eCommerce Diligence™ is a philosophy and methodology based on diligent preparation and decision-making to ensure success

– Strategic Diligence – eMerchandising, eMarketing, Multichannel, Operations, Technology, Organization, Financial Planning

– Selection Diligence – Requirements, RFP, Selection of eCommerce technologies and providers including: platforms, mCommerce, back-end, all point solutions, 3PL/CS

– mCommerce Strategy

– eCommerce Marketing

– Implementation Coaching

• eCommerceKnowHow.com is the first eCommerce knowledge base:– 1000s of best practices, feature evaluations, expert advice and community content on 100s

of features, functions and topics

– 100s of provider and solution comparative info

• FFC mCommerce Benchmark & Buyers Guide is a structure benchmark to assess the market, compare where you stack up, help prioritize improvements

“ Life Coach and eHarmony of eCommerce ”

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FFC M-Commerce Benchmark

About the FFC M-Commerce Index

• 125 mobile commerce sites

• 100+ best practices and criteria

• 13 categories:– Apparel/Accessories - Luxury Apparel

– Discount/Auction Sites - General/Department

– Gifting - Healthy/Beauty

– Mass Merchant - Specialty

– Home - Books/Media

– Office Supplies - Electronics

– Food

• Also surveyed include: – Travel, Financial, Consumables

How does this help? Get answers to:

• How do you get started?

• Where do you stack up?

• What capabilities should you focus on next?

• How do you build the business case for further investment?

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What We‟re Seeing

Best Practices have quickly evolved

Those who are Mobile:

• 53% have an outside vendor manage the mobile efforts

• 42% retailers have ecommerce driving mobile efforts

• Almost 50% haven‟t measured any ROI on their Mobile efforts

• More than half will continue to enhance their mobile site and app this year

Those who are not Mobile:

• 26% of people who aren‟t mobile have plans to go mobile in the next 7-12 months

• 50% of retailers surveyed have no mobile site, app or marketing program

• Half said it was b/c they thought the investment was too much.

• 18% said it was due to an incompatibility with their current ecommerce system

Source: FitForCommerce M-Commerce Survey April 2011

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#1 Transactional Sites

• Across total M-Commerce Benchmark only

16%* of mobile sites are not transactional

• *Only takes into account the sites or apps

that are optimized for mobile devices. If the

html site comes up on mobile browsers, we

removed them from the number.

• Not always a bad thing, sites can still add

value.

• i.e. CVS has fantastic value adds, you

can refill a prescription, make a clinic

appt, check the sales, find a store, but

you can not „checkout‟ in a typical way

on their mobile site and app

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#2 Build to the “Mobile Moments”

• “Limited Time Only” Discount Auction sites

have one of the highest mobile site

penetration at 89% of the Benchmark (eBay

not included).

• The Flash Sale sites are “first-come, first

served” and lead in this space, because

they have to be accessible anywhere, any

time.

• The ability to easily and quickly shop by

phone is critical as inventory is slim.

• Sites are even enhancing web experience –

Gilt Group even notifies your phone when

items in your cart are about to expire. On

Web, there is a timer, but no sound or

vibration notification.

• Expedia does a great job of using large

icons for the traveler using one hand while

navigating their site

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#3 Scanning Functionality

• Predominantly prevalent in retailers who sell multiple brands - pricing

comparison is most common (Sears, Amazon, Target, etc.)

• 14% Benchmark and 70% Mass have a scanning capability

• Walgreens you can refill a prescription by scanning the bottle code

• J&R has an app to read QR codes for more product information, ratings,

reviews and technical details that don‟t fit on the sign

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#4 Rich Media Scarce • Apps showcase rich media images, swatching and added functionality more

than the mobile sites - can slow down load times

• Rich Media has a low 5% Benchmark penetration

• Victoria‟s Secret shows only 1 color in PD detail image and 20+ swatches.

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#5 Site Search Varies

Search: Paint Brush Search: PaintbrushNavigated to Paint Brushes

On 40% of Mobile Benchmark sites!!

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#6 Search Best Practice

• Hunter vs. Gatherer

mentality on Mobile web

• Typing is not easy!

• Steve Madden and New Egg

are in the forward thinking

minority by using an Auto

Complete functionality

• Help guide the customer to

what they are looking for

faster.

• About 33% of all sites

• Advanced Search - 40%

sites have it, but the irony is

that it‟s almost impossible to

find.

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#7 Ratings & Reviews Growing

• Majority of all verticals are now

showcasing Ratings and Reviews.

• Our Fall 2010 benchmark showed

less than 50% of mobile sites had

this feature

• Of those Books & Media Retailers

that are mobile, 100% show ratings

and reviews

• 66% of Office Supply companies

• 50% of Electronics vertical have

ratings and reviews

• Mass Retail has about 45%

penetration

• 20% Specialty retailers (see right)

• Consumables don‟t have much of

this, but makes sense based on their

products.

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#8 Store Locator a Must Have• 33% in total Benchmark

• 90% of those who have physical stores

• Most store locators have similar functionality and branded uniquely– i.e. Orvis – lifestyle

– i.e. CVS functional with pertinent fields for filtering reasons

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#9 Catalog Quick Search

• 20% Total Benchmark

• Barnes and Noble‟s App gave surprising

results – can‟t search by isbn, but you can

take a photo of the isbn, for bn.com to

search for the item.

• Highest penetration in

Department Stores

category at 50%

• Examples from Brooks

Brothers and Zappos

both leave what you

searched for on screen

• Good feature to add to

speed up checkout time

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#10 Store Product Locator

• Lowes lets you put in zip code on

results pages to see what is in stock

near you.

• Lowes has a Key on PD pages

• Would be ideal to show this key on

results pages too

• Target not only tells you which local

store has your item in stock, but it

tells you the aisle location and

section of the store. Possible bad

experience if store managers move

things.

• < 5% Benchmark that has Brick and

Mortar

• Still going to be a Roadmap item,

needs high level of integration

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#11 Pick Up In-Store Functionality Grows

• Opportunity exists for

multichannel retailers to

better market to customers,

based on location.

• Walgreens, Macy‟s, Sears and

JC Penny are some of the only

retailers who market their store-

specific promotions based on

the shopper‟s location.

• 12% of all Benchmark retailers.

Hasn‟t changed much since

October Benchmark

• Great roadmap item – mobile

site needs to need to include

store locator, real time

inventory sync, sales reps,

location based technology

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#12 Share to Social

• Apparel mobile sites were the first to seriously integrate with social networking

• Of the 34 Apparel sites in the benchmark, 41% including Luxury and Discount (e.g., GAP, Burberry, Gilt Group) are the only ones who have real penetration into social sites, including sharing product info on Facebook and Twitter.

• Up from 35% in October 2010

• Across the rest of the benchmark, only about 3% have some sort of sharing capability.

• Sephora does a great job in their app.

• For gifting season, this could be a big win.

• Given the amount of connectivity and time spent on social networks, chances are your customer will share. Make it easy!

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#13 Preorder Capabilities

• Rare but this can be a great win for the holidays and trendy items (electronics, books, fashion)

• Preordering a „hot‟ new item from a mobile site is a great way of getting people to get used to mobile site

• If your brand or technology does not allow for preordering, taking the email address on the PD page and sending a timely „in stock‟ notification is a way to capture the ROI and take advantage of the buzz.

• Radio Shack allows preordering on the website but not on the mobile site.

• New Egg has no „ship‟ date shown

• Currently on:

– 60% of Books and Media sites

– 45% Electronics

– 100% Mass

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#14 Instant & Constant Confirmation

• Verification of items added to cart. Godiva lets

the customer know with an immediate pop up

from the Product Detail page that this item has

been added and gives you a shortcut to

checkout or to keep shopping.

• 45% of benchmark have some form of mini cart.

• Ever-present Mini-Cart is a

consistent way of demonstrating

„add to cart‟ completion.

• User is 1 click away from the cart:

• 83% in apparel, 66% in gifting and

90% home

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#15 Stored Wallets

• 50 out of 125 sites let you store credit cards as payment info (40%)

• Most of these port the wallet over from the ecommerce sites (90%)

• Not all require log in and will allow you to alter shipping address – security issue if you lose your phone?

• Southwest lets you decide whether to „save‟ your profile on your device or not

• One view of customer is great, especially in certain verticals

– Auction Sites where checkout is time related, one-2 click based on limited inventory i.e. Haute Look

– Travel Vertical

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#16 Accurate Freight Estimation

• Entering in Zip Code for accurate freight

costs or delivery time frames

• Not every industry is utilizing this feature,

but fit is or large and bulky items, it‟s a

great educational tool

• Some need more intelligence built in:

– On Office Max‟s mobile site, I got site

wide free shipping (over $50 in cart),

but I still had to enter in my zip code

before proceeding to PD page

• 66% of Office Supply companies require a

zip code before proceeding to PD page

for costs.

• 50% Home Stores have a zip code look

up feature for shipping rates and in store

pick up

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#17 Apps

• 50% (65 of 125) have apps (either Android or Apple)

• 60% of those apps are transactional

• Most include a special technology that can be native to the phone‟s OS.

– i.e. vibration alerts, drag and drop, accelerometer, shake , flip book capability, configurator, switch orientations

• Many using HTML 5, rich media, video

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#18 – Feedback Mechanism

• Give your users an easy

and quick place to tell you

when something is wrong

with the mobile app or site

• 100% of Office Supply

vertical (Office Depot

pictured)

• 20% of Discount vertical

• Certain mobile platform

providers build this in.

Saw patterns

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#19 – Location, location

• Asking for location permissions is

common - 60% of benchmark

• Up from 20% in penetration since

October 2010

• Retailers want mobile to help

bring customers into stores using

smart location or GPS based

coupons, push notifications,

special offers, etc.

• Ask for mobile opt ins at emails

and all checkout locations (store,

online, catalog, mobile)

• Treat mobile marketing like any

other marketing, segment and

don‟t over use your list

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#20 – Testing/Measuring

• Define your internal Mobile success criteria early on

• Measure mCommerce as you would any other new

channel:

– Analytics installed and reviewed

– QA

– Testing

– Cross Promotion

– Marketing opt ins

• Some KPIs may not yet be fully „trackable‟‟ or

identified

• Use redirects if you have to, but not too many slow

load times

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Parting Thoughts…

• Always understand what your audience’s “mobile moments” are

• Use your top 10 eCommerce features or values to guide what to prioritize

on your mobile site/app

• Mobile should be part of your existing analytics to understand visitor

behavior

• Treat mCommerce as another channel, not just another feature set

• Decide who will own this channel internally, from strategy to build and once

live, then improvements

• Benchmark your mobile site/app so that you know where you stand where

to prioritize focus…and get budget

• Invest in it as if it were a new cross-channel business line

• You don’t really have much of a choice. Your competitors AND your

customers are already “mobile”

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About TRUSTe

Founded in 1997

4,000+ clients

Offers online privacy solutions for all major

customer channels.

We offer privacy certifications, seals and solutions for:

Websites AdvertisingMobile Apps

& Mobile WebPlatforms & Apps

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Why are some retailers not mobile? What are the road blocks ahead and what issues do

they face?

Nearly nine in ten (85%) restrict

at least some types of

information sharing on mobile

apps

• Users are more comfortable

with sharing a user name and

password

• Users are less comfortable

with location, age or gender

Retailers want to collect as much info as possible from consumers to engage and

personalize their experience. However, road blocks remain.

Source: Harris Interactive and TRUSTe Survey, Feb 2011

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Why are some retailers not mobile? What are the road blocks ahead and what issues do

they face?

Advertising tracking worries

consumers

• 85% of consumers want the option

to opt-out of targeted mobile ads.

• 74% of users are not comfortable

with the idea of advertisers

tracking their data for targeting

purposes.

• 68% of consumers say they are

being tracked for mobile ad

targeting (an awareness far higher

than the actual practice).

Advertising using behavioral tracking techniques is especially popular for reaching

shoppers on the mobile devices. However, it must be utilized in a responsible manner.


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What are some of the security issues that need to be overcome?

Payment –Find a secure m-commerce platform provider that offers:

• SSL-encrypted transaction support

• Alternative payments such as PayPal and Amazon‟s payment system.

Secure Information Collection – Only ask for information that you absolutely need and

don‟t collect extra information until after you‟ve established a trusted relationship.

When collecting Personally Identifying Information (credit card #, geo-location etc.) be sure

it‟s encrypted.

• During transmission

• When it‟s stored

• When it‟s turned over to vendors.

Geo-location – A user‟s location info is considered a gold mine especially when tied with

profile information

• Ask for permission before you collect this information

• Explain why you are collecting it

Behavioral-based Advertising – Generally, okay to do as long as it‟s used to enhance the

service you provide to them.

• Do not share with a party unless they need it to support the primary service you provide

the user.

• Obtain users‟ permission before you collect info, if the data you collect is for other 3rd

party purposes

Images courtesy of ITPAtraining.com, topnews.net.nz and bgnentrepreneur.net

Users that feel you are taking their security and privacy seriously are less likely to turn to your competitors.

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How can retailers resolve users‟ privacy concerns?


1. Think Strategically About Privacy

Proactively stay ahead of these trends to maximize brand affinity and obtain loyalty

• 74% of consumers believe it‟s “very important” or “extremely important” to

understand what personal information a mobile app collects

2. Always Ask Before Collecting Location Data

Only 36% of consumers felt that they had a choice regarding the collection and use

of their location data

3. Offer Opt-Outs For Mobile Ad Targeting

85% of consumers want to be able to opt-in or

out of targeted mobile ads

4. Give Shoppers Transparency & Choice

98% of consumers believe it‟s important for

mobile apps to provide easy access to

controls for collecting and sharing personal

information

5. Get Your App Privacy Certified

Only 1 in 3 consumers feel in control of their

personal information when using their mobile

devices

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Best practice tips for getting started in mobile commerce

Provide users with transparency and remain accountable

Use clear messaging re: use of location data

Secure this data through encryption etc.

Ensure adequate consumer redress mechanisms for those who want to

remove their location data

Provide users with choice (i.e. ask users permission to use their location

information before you collect it)

Meaningful choice is when consumers understand the implications of

sharing their data.

Have a privacy trust mark– Users will reward companies who make strong

commitments to their privacy

Users recognize established trust marks (like TRUSTe) means a

company has undergone rigorous vetting by an independent 3rd party

Trust

# and purchase amount

# of downloads

# of registrations Images courtesy of Justmeans.com, gamesetwatch.com

To lessen user privacy concerns and increase your mobile commerce success,

develop an overall strategy on how to reduce privacy concerns at all customer

touch points….mobile, website, platform, call center etc.

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QuickTime™ and a decompressor

are needed to see this picture.Digby Introduction

• Headquartered in Austin, TX

• Singularly focused on building the Mobile Channel and In-store Engagement for Retailers

• Enabled 45+ top retail brands with 90+ storefronts

• Enterprise grade environment with PCI Level 1 Certification and 24/7 support

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are needed to see this picture.Best Practices In A Successful Mobile Commerce Strategy

1) Goals

Use Cases

How Will You Engage

Your Customers?

3) Platform

What Mediums and

Devices Do your Customers Use?

4) Design

Usability Will Play a

Significant Role in Success

5) Manage

Expectations

What is Realistic?

What is Optimistic?

6) Go To

Market

Where is the Leverage?

Who do you need to reach?

7) Metrics &

Measure

What Activities are Critical?

How Frequent?

2) Make or

Buy/Partner

Own

Or

License?

Today‟s Focus:

Best Practices in Platform and Design

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are needed to see this picture.The Platform

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are needed to see this picture.Mobile Web Visits By Device

45.15%

40.92%

7.72%

5.09%

0.32%

0.24%

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are needed to see this picture.

Time

Sensitivity

• Mobile Users are in a hurry

• Not “EXCLUSIVELY” focused on the

device - Multi-tasking is a given

• Very Impatient - need “Snappy”

experience

• Impulse and Convenience

• “Snack” versus “Dine”

Mobile Design Considerations

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• Time Sensitivity and Clean Process Flows

• Compel Application “Open” as frequently

as possible

• Form Factor

• Use of Device Resources (location,

address book, calendar)

• Shelf-life and adaptability

• Closed Loop Tasks

• Weight, Download Size

• Network Latency


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• Web Form Factor Mismatch

• The Web is not compatible with a 2”

screen

• Looks are important; Process flows are

key to “Elegant Solution”

• Forms and Data Entry problems

• “Sticky Notes” design process


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• “The Paradox of Choice” by Barry

Schwartz

• Too many choices drives

consumer dissatisfaction

• Mobile Corollary:

• Don‟t do too much

• Focused choices can drive higher

satisfaction


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• Mobile Commerce is here and now

• Look at Mobile Commerce Strategically

– Full Mobile Web and Rich Applications

– Devices, Platforms, Shapes and Sizes Changing Rapidly

• Recognize Elegance in Speed and Simplicity

– Snappy Experiences

– Fast Transitions and Clean Process Flows

• Start off with One or 2 things done extremely well

• Consider Multi-Channel Use Cases

• The opportunity to engage with your mobile customer is now under

your own branded mobile website and rich app

Summary and Key Takeaways

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Thank you for your time

The presentation will be mailed out to

all attendees

If you have questions, please contact

Janet at [email protected]

Websites AdvertisingMobile Web & Apps Platforms & Apps

TRUSTe offer privacy certifications, seals and solutions for:

benchmarking m-commerce best practices for sites and apps

Technology

mobile sites

mobile commerce sites

mobile benchmark sites

mobile efforts

mobile marketer

mobile browsers

mobile devices

mobile commerce daily