Digital Marketing Consultant

Are Your Ready for the iPad 3?

The rumors are growing. The leakers are leaking, the press is getting excited and geeks everywhere are dusting off their sleeping bags and how early they will need to get in line to beat the scalpers. Apple is expected to announce a new iPad on March 7^th.

Social media marketers might shrug at that news. It means that for a few days in March, Twitter will be buzzing about the new device. That might not be a good time to try to build interest in a product launch but once the excitement dies down, things should go back to normal, right? At least until the device actually comes out and the iPad 3 becomes the hot giveaway item in social media promotions.

Not exactly, because there is no normal any more. According to one report, Apple has ordered as many as 65 million retina displays for the new iPad. That is a phenomenal figure and it says much about the way that people are connecting to the Internet and using social media now and in the future.

They are connecting less at their desks and more on the sofa, on the bus, in cafés and in restaurants.

And they are buying in those places too!

Shopping Online… and on the Sofa

This is new. In the past, online shopping might have meant skipping the mall and heading to the study. Now it does not even have to mean climbing the stairs. According to one report, mobile purchases over the 2011 holiday season saw a rise of 172.9 percent over the same period last year. Another study estimates that 18.3 percent of all online purchases made on Christmas Day were made on a mobile device, 13.4 percent of them on either an iPhone or iPad.

Clearly, your website should be optimized for mobile users.  (see Mobile Marketing Guide)  You should be looking now at the percentage of your customers who made a purchase on your website using a mobile device. (It is information that is easily available on your analytics page.) And you will need to check that at the very least your conversion rate for mobile visitors is no lower than your conversion rate for your regular visitors. If it is lower, as more people switch to surfing on tablets and phones, your overall conversion rate will hit a downward trend.

But you will also want to think about how and when you post your social media updates. If you now know that people are more likely to buy your products when they are sitting at home with their iPads than when they are sitting in the office with their laptops, then that will affect how you tweet and post. You will want to send tweets and updates during the day that build interest and create trust but only send the link to the landing page in the evening or at the weekend when your followers are relaxing on the sofa and ready to buy.

You will need to create content that matches the platform on which your customers are consuming it — and you will want to show that you understand them by posting your content from your own mobile devices from the sofa (becoming a couch potentate?).

Online and On the Go

Turning to mobility, the opportunities for online retailers are numerous, but equally, new mobile distribution channels are adding complexity to the retailer/consumer relationship. From mobile sites, to branded apps, to QR codes, and mobile payments, retailers have a wealth of resources to draw on in engaging audiences and building brand loyalty. So far, the percentage of online purchases made from a mobile device are still relatively low. However, that doesn’t mean mobile devices aren’t playing a role in the shopping process.

According to The Google/OTX 2010 Study, 52% of US smartphone users planned to compare prices using their phones during the 2010 holiday season, and 40% planned to use their phones to read product reviews. Meanwhile, Nielsen has found that a majority of connected device owners are receptive to mobile ads if it means being able to access other content for free, and iPad owners specifically are more likely to make a purchase online after viewing an ad than owners of otherdevices. All this means that shoppers are still influenced by the mobile channel even if they’re not yet using it in large numbers to buy items directly.

The QR code phenomenon is also fascinating in its impact on online sales. According to Van Eiseman, Vice President of Creative Technology at Digitas, QR codes have been one of the hottest mobile trends recently among customers. The reason is these 2D barcodes provide a way to activate a brand for consumers when they are already in front of a product and actively seeking more information. Eiseman noted further in a recent panel discussion that many of his customers’ QR codes are linking to mobile video, which neatly combines the video and mobility trends in a single package.

By far the most critical aspect of mobility is compatibility of online sites, apps, and advertising across the wide range of gadgets available. Tablet devices were the big trend at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show, and when you include the number of new tablets launching this year with the increasing popularity of smartphones, the mobile landscape is both complex and incredibly varied.

All of these devices act as potential access points to a retailer’s brand, which means how your site, app, or ad plays across the lot of them impacts how consumers perceive your company and its products or services. If the online retail experience isn’t optimized for mobile access—however that mobile access is achieved— consumers are liable to walk away with a negative impression, and customer satisfaction impacts both online and offline sales.

If you did not see yesterday's link, go to yesterday's blog and see what is happening in preparation for mobile shopping.

The electronic retail shopping today is nothing like it was five years ago, and it is unrecognizable from ecommerce at ten years ago.  Even though many online shoppers have been doing business on the web for years, the types of transactions, expectations of quality, and on-site behaviors have all changed dramatically.  Consumers do not go online just to make a purchase.  They go online to browse, compare, and explore.  In other words, they go shopping.

First a few statistics.  During the 2010 holiday season, online shopping reportedly spiked up 13% year-over-year.

• That is compared to a 5.7% reported overall increase in shopping, which indicates the growing importance of the online medium.  At the same time, a recent Limelight Networks study found that 65% of survey respondents claimed to have been shopping online for more than five years.
• This history of on-line shopping appears to show that established online shoppers are doing more of their transactions on the web, even as new online shoppers are only now discovering the web’s advantages.  In other words, growth is coming from both a larger sample of consumers.  Javelin Strategy and Research predicts the percentage of US consumers shopping online will increase to 78% by 2014—and from greater usage among existing shoppers.
• Still, revenue from online shopping is only a fraction of retail revenue overall.  In 2010, holiday online sales rang in at $32.6 billion according to comScore, while the National Retail Federation reports that retail as a whole topped out at $462 billion in revenue.  That means that there is a lot of room for growth in the online space, and, given current growth rates, it also means we could see a big shift in proportional shopping across the retail landscape.  As important as etail is today, its relative impact on the retail sector, including purchases made both online and offline, will increase exponentially in the coming years.

There are three major trends to watch in the growth of online retail:

1. The use of video in online marketing and sales,
2. The growing importance of mobility, and
3. An increasing emphasis on personalized shopping experiences. 

With each of these trends, the impact is not just a matter of a particular behavior spreading to a larger group of people.  More tomorrow.