Thousands of emails touting holiday sales have hit inboxes and eager children have the ear of mall Santas across the world—the 2015 holiday shopping season is officially underway. Early holiday promotions and the rise of online shipping took a toll on in-store sales this past Thanksgiving weekend which has sparked many retailers to look at mobile as the new holiday shopping tradition.

However Gene Alvarez Managing Vice President of Digital Commerce Gartner warns that mobile is just a piece of the customer experience and businesses should be conscious of the overall expectations of the average shopper.

“It was a great weekend for mobile but you need to put it in context of overall sales” he says. “It’s not as if because of mobile stores will close down. Mobile has become a key component in the overall integrated digital customer experience.”

As numbers go it was a record-breaking Thanksgiving weekend for online and mobile transactions however U.S. sales from in-store retailers were down on average over last year. The National Retail Federation estimated shoppers on average spent $380.95 at stores during the four-day weekend compared with $407.02 a year ago and total spending fell about 11 percent to $50.9 billion.

On the cyber side online sales continue to expand their share of the market and mobile hit a historic milestone—Thanksgiving Day mobile traffic accounted for 52.1 percent of all online traffic. This is the first time mobile devices have outpaced their PC counterparts for online browsing according to IBM.

“For the first time mobile devices drove more than half of Thanksgiving online traffic a trend that continued throughout Cyber Week" says Jay Henderson Director IBM Smarter Commerce. “As the holiday shopping season becomes less concentrated on a single day retailers and marketers took advantage by making it easier for consumers to find the best deals on the go whenever and wherever they chose to shop.”

The remainder of the weekend saw a slight decline in mobile traffic—Black Friday mobile traffic reached 49.6 percent of all online traffic an increase of 25 percent over last year. Yet IBM reported strong online and mobile sales for Cyber Monday capping a record five-day span for holiday shopping based on consumer transaction data analyzed in real-time by the IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark. From Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday overall online sales increased 12.6 percent with mobile sales up 27.2 percent compared to the same period in 2013. iOS devices continued to lead in mobile shopping with traffic more than twice and sales nearly four times that of Android devices during Cyber Week.

Consumers clicked their way to the best deals on Cyber Monday which according to IBM remained the busiest online shopping day of the weekend. Online sales grew 8.5 percent compared to 2013 with mobile sales up 27.6 percent year-over-year.

Create a superior mobile experience

Alvarez does admit that with mobile consumers have a more comfortable interface to use wherever they are whether at home at work or in the store itself. He says that what consumers want most out of their mobile experience is good visualization capability and an easy interface—not the dreaded pinch-to-zoom situation consumers find themselves in when they want to type in their billing information.

“They are looking for ease of use—something I can operate with one thumb in 30 seconds” he says. “But at the same time I am looking for a good visual. I want to see the product well.”
From a business perspective Alvarez says retailers should focus on marrying in-store online and mobile shopping together for a complete customer experience. “Imagine your phone being your mobile in-store associate to answer questions tell you availability to tell you that something on your wish list that’s in your online profile is available in that store and on sale now. That’s the potential for mobile.”

Mobile developers should concentrate on ease of use rich visualization and the overall customer experience. Certain mobile features that focus on these areas are gaining traction in the consumer world including camera as a search. Amazon has done a great job at this explains Alvarez. Barcode searching continues to be popular and the ability to search without a barcode is the next step.

Voice-enabled search is another one. “We find consumers are using Siri or Google Voice to search for items” he says.

For visualization pictures are typically scaled down for the mobile device. Imagine the capability to with one click download or open a picture in the photo browser of a mobile device where you can see the picture more clearly and you can zoom in and pin he says.

With mobile and online shopping on the incline retailers that want to stay ahead of competition must deliver a great customer experience not only on mobile devices but across the company says Alvarez. Pieces of the puzzle such as a good return policy and solid delivery must not be forgotten.

“Retailers need to keep their eye not only on the mobile experience but the overall customer experience” he explains. “Because that’s what's going to take a first-time buyer and turn them into a repeat buyer hopefully a loyal buyer and hopefully an advocate. It’s that consistency of the customer experience.”

To learn more about the 2014 Thanksgiving shopping weekend or to access full reports on holiday shopping trends check out the IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark Hub and new self-service app at www.ibm.com/benchmark.

 

Tweetable stats from Thanksgiving weekend shopping (compared to 2013):

• Online sales from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday increased 12.6 »tweet«
• Thanksgiving Day mobile traffic accounted for 52.1% of all online traffic »tweet«
• Thanksgiving online sales up 14.3%; mobile sales up 25.4% »tweet«
• Black Friday online sales up 9.5%; mobile sales up 28.2% »tweet«
• Mobile traffic dropped 17% and mobile sales dropped 21.2% from Black Friday to Cyber Monday. »tweet«
• Cyber Monday online sales up 8.5 % mobile sales up 27.6% »tweet«
• Cyber Monday mobile traffic accounted for 41.2% of all online traffic up 30.1% over 2013 »tweet«
• Cyber Monday mobile sales reached 22% of total Cyber Monday online sales an increase of 27.6 percent year-over-year. »tweet«
• iOS led the way in mobile on Cyber Monday outpacing Android in average order value online traffic and online sales. »tweet«
• Desktop PCs accounted for 58.6% of all online traffic on Cyber Monday and 78% of all online sales. »tweet«
• Consumers spent more shopping on their PCs with an average order of $128.24 compared to $110.72 for mobile shoppers.»tweet«
• Pinterest referrals drove an average of $97.78 per order compared to $123.44 for Facebook a difference of 26.2%. »tweet«