March 6, 2018
Mobile commerce helped boost YNAP's results. Image credit: Yoox
As more shoppers buy online, a brand’s mobile presence can become a dealbreaker, with about half of consumers saying they have switched to a competitor after a poor experience.
According to a new report from Worldpay, consumers show an affinity for mobile applications that deliver a tailored, speedy, secure purchase path. In particular, India has outpaced the rest of the world in mobile app usage, with most consumers in the developing market willing to pay for more personalized, upscale service.
"In order to ensure a positive interaction, retailers need to customize the mobile experience to each shopper's distinct needs," said Casey Bullock, general manager North America, global enterprise ecommerce at Worldpay, San Francisco.
"By capturing personal details from a shopper’s account, retailers can build tailored and optimized user experiences to make the mobile shopping process seamless," he said. "Through personalized recommendations and promotions, retailers can offer their shoppers a better mobile experience."
Worldpay’s “The Mobile Payment Journey” report, conducted in partnership with Opinium, is based on a survey of 16,000 consumers across 10 markets. Respondents came from the United Kingdom, United States, Germany, Brazil, China, Japan, Australia, South Korea, Russia and India.
Shopping list
Across the globe, 68 percent of consumers made their last purchase via an app. Shoppers tend to opt for a retailer’s app over the mobile Web due to speed and ease of transaction, since apps often allow them to save information such as payment details.
When trying to convince consumers to download and use an app, retailers need to earn their trust. Moves such as gaining positive ratings in the app store or allowing for a preferred payment method are key to instilling confidence.
Four in 10 consumers would stop a purchase in an app if they felt that the security was lacking, while about a quarter have ended a transaction if they could not use their chosen form of payment.
Convenience is also key, with 57 percent of consumers wanting to store payment details to facilitate repeat transactions. About a quarter of customers will abandon their cart if they are forced to enter their information manually on a small mobile screen.
Consumers value convenience for mobile shopping. Image credit: Neiman Marcus
Additionally, 47 percent would like to use biometric data to identify themselves, looking to technology such as fingerprint scans to ease the payment process. Along with expediting payment, 58 percent of consumers feel biometric data will make their payments more secure.
Post-purchase, about half of consumers want an email confirmation of their order, while shoppers in China and South Korea would prefer an SMS notification.
Among the markets studied, India showed the strongest preference for mobile apps. Internationally, 71 percent of consumers prefer apps to the mobile Web, while 82 percent of Indian shoppers opt for applications.
Sixty-four percent of Indian consumers are willing to shell out for superior service. The nation’s youthful, digitally driven population presents potential for luxury brands.
"The key is to build a mobile experience that can be customized to each shopper's preferences, making the entire experience simple and hassle-free," Mr. Bullock said. "Indian merchants that can provide a customizable mobile payment experience that’s quick and seamless will see fewer abandoned baskets, more app downloads and increased sales.
"Besides offering more personalized experiences, Indian luxury brands should also look at their loyalty programs and how they reward their mobile shoppers," he said. "According to our findings, Indian shoppers were more likely to complete a purchase on mobile because of loyalty rewards.
"About 81 percent of Indian respondents said they would be more likely to shop if presented with extra points or rewards for shopping on mobile, ahead of the market average 71 percent."
Growing channel
Mobile applications are an increasingly important part of the modern retail ecosystem, with 67 percent of all mobile ecommerce sales coming from brands' shopping apps.
Criteo's Q4 Global Commerce Study has analyzed the impact mobile commerce has had on the retail world. The study also found that fashion is one of the top-performing categories for mobile shopping (see story).
The portion of online retail group Yoox Net-A-Porter Group’s sales that are coming through mobile is constantly growing, with the company expecting the majority of purchases to be made via mobile devices by 2020.
While there were doubts that luxury shoppers would forego the bricks-and-mortar experience for ecommerce, these concerns have been proven unnecessary, with consumers turning to digital platforms to buy everything from high-fashion to fine jewelry. During a keynote at the FT Business of Luxury Summit on May 16, the CEO of YNAP shared his outlook for the online luxury market as well as the efforts his own group is doing to innovate for today's consumer (see story).
"Luxury brands need to be investing in maintaining and optimizing their mobile apps," Worldpay's Mr. Bullock said. "When thinking of their last purchases on mobile, 71 percent of global respondents made a purchase through an app, while only 29 percent used a mobile Web site.
"This means that while retailers' mobile Web sites need to still offer a smooth user experience, their focus clearly needs to be on their app, as well," he said. "Whether that means reconfiguring your product page for mobile or making checkout data fields easier to read, it is critical for retailers to ensure a better mobile experience from 'add to cart' to a shopper’s purchase confirmation page to drive mobile sales.
"Additionally, retailers should take a look at their app ratings/reviews on the App Store to ensure they’re positive, so shoppers will want to download their app in the first place."
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