2012 100 - Networld Media Group

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6 M-COMMERCE Technology companies and retailers alike have hailed 2011 as the year of mobile shopping. Consumers are fast approaching the tipping point in their embrace of smartphones and tablets to access apps, discounts, price comparison information, and payment mechanisms. According to Email Marketing Reports, mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones became the highestselling consumer electronic device category in 2011, amounting to 115 million units in Q3 alone — beating out PC, laptop and netbook figures combined. A much-cited report from comScore found that two-thirds of all smartphone owners have performed some sort of shopping activity on their phones, including comparing products and prices, searching for coupons, taking product pictures, or locating a retail store, and that 38 percent have 7 used their phones to make a purchase at least once. In fact, more than one in three purchasers have used their smartphones to make a purchase while in a store, according to a less-noted finding from the same report. Thus far, e-commerce companies have had the upper hand in using mobile technology to inflict blows on physical stores. But we are still in the early ASSORTMENT LOCALIZATION As consumers continue to trim spending and do more of their shopping online, big-box retailers are moving to smaller stores to reduce under-utilized space and stay profitable. At the same time, consumers are treating retail stores as showrooms where they can test-drive merchandise before making a purchase. Whether or not they purchase in-store, shoppers will increasingly turn to their mobile devices to check for better pricing or selection before making that purchase. As a counter to both of these trends, proactive retailers are utilizing sophisticated communication tools such as assortment planning, flow modeling, price optimization, promotion optimization and size optimization to create custom assortments based on each store’s local characteristics and demographics. By capturing information about the specific buying patterns of their shoppers, they can efficiently cater to each store’s particular needs. John Seidl, a partner at Kurt Salmon Associates, argues that, as U.S. consumers become more diverse, they tend to rounds of this fight. M-commerce may prove to be the salvation of brick and mortar after all. Cyriac Roeding, founder of the location-based mobile shopping app Shopkick, believes mobile commerce provides merchants with unprecedented opportunities to bring personalization and one-on-one personal treatment back to the in-store purchase experience. Jani Strand, a spokeswoman for teen apparel chain American Eagle, said, “Our customers are rarely without their smartphones, so any engagement that connects with them through these devices tends to be effective.” Indeed, today’s shoppers are so umbilically tied to their phones, according to Master- Card executive Mario Shiliashki, they are more likely to leave home without their wallet or cigarettes. “And I mention cigarettes,” he adds, “because the phone has become more addictive than the most addictive substance out there.” rebel against the one-size-fits-all retailing models. By utilizing the concept of store assortment localization, Seidl notes that retailers have been able to boost sales by 40 percent to 50 percent and carve out a solid competitive advantage for themselves. Assortment localization can be an effective way to build intimacy with customers as the economy puts more pressure on retailers to manage their inventories closely. Scott Welty, vice president of retail industry strategy for JDA Software <strong>Group</strong>, notes that the 8
trend toward shoppers using brickand-mortar locations as showrooms requires retailers to stock the optimal localized assortment range and maintain appropriate quantities for each store. “Having the right item in the right store at the right time helps maintain and improve customer loyalty,” says Welty. “Providing a superior customer experience by ensuring that ‘available to promise’ meets the demand and geographic location of the customer, no matter how or where they ultimately buy the merchandise.” 8 EXPERIENCE DESIGN In theory, experience design — or user experience (UX) design — operates from the premise that consumers wish to engage in a meaningful interaction when purchasing a product or service. In practice, experience design involves the creation of culturally relevant products, processes, services, events, and environments that focus primarily on the quality of the user experience rather than functionality. This emerging trend in “user-centered” design informs the latest in everything from intelligent buildings to Facebook apps, iPhone games and digital equipment. Mobile adoption in the retail and financial sectors is fueling the drive toward smoother, more intuitive designs. Applying experience design principles to mobile, for example, would strive to eliminate clutter while requiring fewer, simpler steps to accomplish a task, thus providing a more streamlined and targeted experiences. UX design is a highly multi-disciplinary field, incorporating aspects of everything from psychology, anthropology, sociology, computer science, graphic design and cognitive science. Depending on the product, UX may also draw on content design disciplines as varied as communication, instruction and gaming. Emerging trends in UX design include designs that can adapt and perform within various media devices, gestural and touch-based interactions, location/proximity-based mobile experiences, smart real-time user interface, and designs that can adapt and perform within various media devices. The rise of social media has increased the importance and impact of each customer experience. Because customer expectations and experiences are rapidly shared and distributed between peers, it is more important than ever that retailers engage in meaningful interactions with customers to make them truly empowered participants. UX designer and blogger Whitney Hess’s 10 guiding principles can be applied to both physical and virtual world projects irrespective of goals, constraints, or resources. Her first principle is: “Stay out of people’s way. Pave the road for an easy ride.” 9
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Page 5 and 6: pia Snowe called the incentive “a
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Page 11 and 12: Prosper Mobile Insights has found t
Page 13 and 14: 13 RETAIL CRM The future of retail
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Page 17 and 18: 25 TIFFANY 26 STARBUCKS According t
Page 19 and 20: 28 DISNEY 29 DIGITAL SIGNAGE Follow
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Page 23 and 24: 39 POP-UP SHOPS Although pop-ups ha
Page 25 and 26: 42 TARGET After spending two years
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Page 29 and 30: 54 BEST BUY EBAY Best Buy is taking
Page 31 and 32: 57 RETAIL CROWDSOURCING Crowdsourci
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Page 35 and 36: 70 T MOBILE 71 TWITTER T-Mobile’s
Page 37 and 38: 74 ETHNIC RETAIL The café inside W
Page 39 and 40: 80 FAMILY DOLLAR While other retail
Page 41 and 42: 86 87 RETAIL AT AIRPORTS With malls
Page 43 and 44: 90 ELECTRONIC SHELF LABELS Given th
Page 45 and 46: 96 AUTOZONE Auto parts chain AutoZo
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2012 100 - Networld Media Group

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