The way consumers engage with brands and retailers is going mobile. Analyst firm Gartner suggested that by 2013 more online search will be conducted on smartphones than on the PC or laptop.

The way consumers engage with brands and retailers is going mobile. Analyst firm Gartner suggested that by 2013 more online search will be conducted on smartphones than on the PC or laptop.

But, so the nay-sayers argue, consumers are still not buying using their phones - they are researching and discovering using their smartphones, but the actual purchase is still being completed in store or using their PC.

Simpson Carpenter’s recent research with consumers about their use and perceptions of m-commerce seems to back this up. When we asked consumers if they had purchased goods or services across a range of retail categories including electrical, fashion, health and beauty and grocery using their smartphones, no one category saw a figure higher than 8%.

Nevertheless, to build a truly multichannel business, retailers must have a proposition that works across mobile, tablet, PC and the traditional store. Both John Lewis and Marks & Spencer have recently cited figures that suggest multichannel shoppers spend on average between three and four times as much as a single-channel shopper.

On this basis, for retailers to ignore the mobile channel, or to focus predominantly on their traditional PC-enabled online proposition, is to miss an important opportunity to influence consumers and drive them to purchase, either in store, on their PCs or eventually via their smartphones or tablets. While buying on a smartphone is still not consumers’ first choice purchase point, our research over the past two years suggests that having a mobile-enabled online proposition is going to be absolutely key to acquiring and retaining customers in the near future.

We know from asking them that consumers are using their smartphones and tablets during the ‘pre-purchase’ part of their experience and that this is very heavily influencing their final purchase decision. Nearly a quarter (23%) of all consumers have researched and done the ‘prep-work’ in the grocery category using their smartphone, and that figure rises to over 40% for categories including electrical, fashion and tickets .

As smartphone ownership continues its rapid growth, the opportunity for retailers and brands to use the mobile channel to entice customers into other areas of their multichannel offer will only become more important.

It is however essential to get it right. Having asked consumers, we know that when they have a poor online experience (and as all of us know, a non-mobile enabled web experience on a smartphone is generally a poor experience), more than a quarter (26%) of consumers will go to a competitor site instead. As such, any retailer’s top online priority must be getting its mobile-enabled online proposition up and running and fit for purpose.

Make sure consumers can search and research your offer and services on their mobile, and then make sure they can purchase quickly and effectively using the full range of channels - either using their smartphone or their PC, or in store. This will give all your channels an opportunity to contribute to building relationships with customers and ultimately to winning the race to secure their purchase. That’s a truly multichannel proposition.

  • Paul Griffiths, director, Simpson Carpenter