Summary: View-through attribution should be more influential in mobile compared to desktop since viewability isn’t an issue.
Last month, Twitter announced a new feature for developers called mobile app deep-linking that received less attention than it deserved. This feature allows app developers to enable links directly to their apps from tweets. To use one of Twitter’s examples, say you take a photo in Path and…
I wrote a blog post today. It’s pretty rare, so check it out if you get really excited about mobile marketing and arcane developer features in iOS 6.
I’m reblogging myself because tapCommerce’s tumblr is still a WIP. Follow us for more stuff like this.
When we look back on the holiday shopping season in 2012, we’ll see that mobile platforms are increasingly becoming a viable way for consumers to shop. There’s already an abundance of data that supports this from Black Friday and Cyber Monday. According to a report from IBM, Cyber Monday saw an increase of 70% in mobile sales. The iPad represented 7% of all online sales and completely dominated competing devices by producing 90.5% of all tablet e-commerce sales. 24% of Black Friday retail traffic came from mobile devices up from 14% in 2011 and less than 1% in 2009. The trend is clear and it’s not reversing. What’s leading to this shift in user behavior?
1. Mass adoption of smartphones and tablets. Apple has sold 100 million iPads in less than three years. There are 1 billion smartphone users globally. The growth rate of smartphone and tablet adoption is far surpassing that of other platforms/devices. This is both across device purchases and usage. In two years, mobile internet use has grown >300% and represents 13% of global traffic. Mobile commerce is merely a subset of this macro trend.
2. Improved mobile shopping experiences. As a result of the above and their own internal data, e-commerce companies have realized that they need mobile optimized websites and dedicated native apps across platforms. Companies like Branding Brand and Revel Touch are rapidly growing to accommodate the demand from traditional e-commerce companies who don’t have mobile design expertise in-house. “E-Commerce 2.0” companies like Fab, Gilt and One Kings Lane are increasingly taking a mobile first approach and thinking about mobile platforms ahead of the web. Fab anticipates that they’ll see 50% of sales from mobile next year. Companies that have built mobile-optimized and/or native app experiences are seeing higher conversion rates and increased adoption of using mobile devices as part of normal buying behavior.
3. The advent of “couch commerce.” This is less quantifiable than the above, but it’s an anecdotal observation that you’ll be hard-pressed to deny. People shop on their desktops/laptops while at work to procrastinate. When they get home, they’re increasingly sitting on the couch, watching TV and on their smartphone or tablet answering emails, playing games and, of course, shopping. You’ve done this. I’ve done this. I think this behavior will continue to increase and #1 and #2 will be gasoline on the fire.
It seems clear that as Apple and the bevy of Android manufacturers continue to churn out high-quality mobile devices, consumers will increasingly discover new things to buy on the go or while relaxing at home using these emerging platforms. The companies that have built best of breed UX on mobile and who are able to acquire and retain customers efficiently will reap the benefits of this behavioral shift.
Tim Cook
This is the best quote from the BW profile.
I haven’t written about my new gig yet because I’ve been busy with the new gig. Here’s one of the (many) things I’m currently working through. If you think you can help, give me a shout:
I’ve got a fun task that I need help with. Quick disclaimer: I’ve never written a creative brief so don’t hold me accountable for a general lack of adhering to conventions or using the right terminology. I hope that’s not a problem. If it’s a problem, I guess we shouldn’t work together?
So here’s the deal: I want to partner with someone to form an early-stage start-up’s brand identity from a design standpoint. This entails helping us come up with:
- a kickass logo
- a refreshed website to reflect this new design sensibility (ideally working within bootstrap if that’s cool with you)
- initial frameworks for marketing collateral: keynote deck, one-pager template, that sort of fun stuff
- probably some other things that will occur to both of us when we talk.
This project is for a company called tapCommerce (told you we needed a little help). People are increasingly turning to their phones and tablets to buy things. We help companies selling things to reach people buying things on their mobile devices efficiently and then keep them coming back for more. We’re based in SoHo, NYC.
If this sounds like something you think you can help me out with, I’d love to hear from you. Shoot me an @ reply on Twitter with a link to your work and I’ll give you a shout.
Looking forward to working with you!
I just left Walmart.
I arrived in September 2011 as part of the transaction that saw OneRiot acquired by the world’s largest retailer.
We had some clever technology for targeting relevant content at mobile consumers based on their social signals, not to mention a super-smart team of Big Data…
Nice post on navigating big companies. Certainly a lot of this resonated for me based on my time at CBS. I’m now taking the reverse approach and I’ve spent the last two years learning how to operate at a start-up pace.
I’ve written before about how mobile now amounts to around 1/3 of all sales for Fab in the U.S.
We just launched our Fab mobile apps (iPhone & iPad) in Europe a few days ago and we’re already seeing a similar pattern. After 5 days, mobile is already amounting to more than 15% of Fab’s sales in Europe. And, that’s iOS only. We’ll launch Fab Android in Europe in the next few weeks.
I realize this is the 2nd reblog of @betashop in a row, but this mobile thing is legit and I feel like it warrants attention. Some fleshed out views on what I’m working on now are forthcoming…
Introducing the completely re-imagined Fab mobile apps for iPhone & iPad.
We just reinvented mobile shopping. Again. Again.
We first introduced Fab’s mobile apps on October 15, 2011. Nearly 1 year later, those apps now contribute 33% of Fab’s daily visits and 33% of Fab’s daily…
Fab has strong mobile e-commerce game. Excited to see what they’ve done with their new apps.
