Scott Todaro, Sr. Director, Product Strategy

In case you happened to miss the press release, Sterling Commerce and Demandware conducted an independent research survey to gain more perspective on the mobile commerce explosion. The end result is that people seem to fancy their mobile phones and transacting on these devices is just the tip of the iceberg. Now if we could just find a way to get grandma feeling more secure about buying stuff online. Below are some enlightening statistics generated from this independent survey of 3,600 U.S. consumers:

• 15 percent of consumers have used their mobile devices to make purchases.
• Nearly all (96.2 percent) of consumers surveyed own a mobile phone, just under half owned a smart phone, which are designed to deliver a more optimal shopping experience.
• Nearly half of consumers would like the option of using PayPal.
• Nearly 40 percent would feel secure knowing that the mobile phone app would not store their credit card number.
• More than 60 percent believe that being able to use their mobile phone while shopping to verify product availability at a particular store location is important to very important.
• Nearly a quarter of shoppers use their phone while in a store to competitively price shop an item.
• Approximately 20 percent of consumers currently use their phones to create shopping lists or baskets, and slightly more than that number would be interested in a mobile app to help with shopping list or basket management for their favorite retailers.
• Two thirds are interested in the possibility of using their mobile phone to scan and purchase items, thus enabling them to bypass checkout lines.
• A quarter of shoppers believe that receiving specials/promotions (such as coupons) would be an important use for their mobile phone when shopping, although they were less enthusiastic about receiving advertising via their phones.

To see the press release containing more statistics click here.  The entire survey findings will be shared at the 2010 Shop.org Annual Summit on September 28th in Dallas, Texas. More information on the Summit can be found at www.shop.org/summit10.

Nothing better accessorizes an outfit quite like a dazzling pair of Nine West shoes. And now with Nine West’s mobile storefront, it’s super simple to keep up with the hottest trends and latest looks of the season. Nine West, a division of Jones Apparel Group, has launched a new mobile storefront, ensuring you never have to be stuck wearing fashion that’s “so last season.”

Nine West, No. 219 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide, used Demandware eCommerce to launch a feature-rich mobile commerce site. It allows customers quick, easy access to the complete catalog of products found on the Nine West ecommerce site from their mobile device. The site provides many features such as the ability to purchase, search, access ka Nine Loves account, signup for email alerts, communicate with customer service and locate Nine West retail stores.

The Nine West mobile commerce site, NineWest.com/mobile, met my on-the-go shopping needs. In my first experience, I was able to:

• Quickly get on the site – The moment I typed in the address to my blackberry browser, it took no time at all for the site to fully load and provide me with a variety of features.

• Find exactly what I was looking for in no time – The main page broke the products down into specific categories (shoes, handbags, accessories, etc.), so I was able to limit my selection to what I was interested in. Once I chose shoes, the search got even more precise and a list of different shoe styles were provided (pumps, flats, wedges, etc.). When I picked the style I was looking for, the site displayed a well organized assortment of shoes. Rather than have me search through hundreds of shoes to find what I wanted, the site was able to distinguish my preference and provide me with a distinct selection.
• Customize my shoe – Once I picked out the shoe I desired, a large, clear image of it appeared. At this stage, the site provided useful details of the shoe (height of heel, type of sole, date shipped by). I was able to choose the color I wanted, my size, and even the width of the shoe.
• Checkout – When an item has been chosen, the site allows the customer to either check out or continue shopping. Checkout is very simple and customers can use their existing accounts to make it even easier and have access to other great features such as creating a wish list. By using an existing account, I was able to avoid entering my billing and shipping information, making the process that much quicker.

In just minutes, I was able to make a purchase from my cell phone without any trouble at all. At no point in time did I hesitate to buy an item on the mobile site due to lack of product details or clear images.Thank you to Nine West for providing me and other customers with a great mobile shopping experience.

(This article was contributed by Meagan Armaral)

It’s the holiday season, well almost. Although it seems distant to many, it’s imperative that retailers start to prepare now. Retailers should be thinking of affective ways to lure in consumers and boost sales during the 2010 holiday season now. One way to ensure a major holiday turn out is by going mobile. For the first time, there are more smartphones than computers being sold. This creates a gigantic opportunity for retailers, especially those who are quick to act. It’s important to keep up with competitors who have already become mobile and are able to provide customers with hassle free shopping this upcoming holiday season.

Mobile will help capture consumers on the go. I, like many, enjoy things that make my life just the slightest bit easier. This becomes a major bonus during the holidays when all people want to do is avoid stores - but know gift giving is a must. Not only does mobile allow you to purchase items at any given moment, it also makes in-store shopping easier. Many of today’s consumers like to use the internet to plan how they will spend the limited time and budget they have for shopping. With mobile, they can simply search for the desired items on their phone, find them at the store, and make the purchase - allowing them to avoid browsing in a crowded store during the holiday season.

Not only does mobile drive in-store purchases, it can help close the deal once consumers are there. Often times, mobile devices are used as in-store shopping tools to help you decide that the price for that flat screen TV you have been pondering is in fact a good deal. The quick research customers conduct on their mobile phones while in-store is usually the final push needed to make the purchase. Retailers will ultimately close more sales by taking this approach and enabling their customer’s access to their mobile site.

Mobile helps the indecisive shoppers that enjoy the opinions of the crowd but can’t seem to convince our friends or family to head out on Black Friday. For those instances when we look for guidance, we are able to take a photo, share a link or ask advice from friends in our social networks prior to our purchase. And accessing product reviews will help build customer confidence in purchasing a big-ticket item. Mobile consumers are looking for facts to support their purchase decision as well as approval from friends and/or other consumers. Retailers must be sure to create a social media presence so that their websites are optimized for mobile viewing and sharing, and their brands are visible and accessible to holiday shoppers.

Help make the holidays a little easier for your customers and give them a worry free shopping experience. After all, it is the season of giving.

(This article was contributed by Meagan Armaral)

We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again - mobile commerce is here for good!  The evolution to mobile commerce is a natural progression and major companies, such as eBay, are taking full advantage by providing their customers with 14 different native mobile apps.  eBay’s iPhone app (which launched earlier this year) has been downloaded 11 million times, and this is just one out of 14 apps they have to offer! The amount of downloads wildly exceeded their expectations, resulting in a projected revenue of $1.5 billion from mobile in 2010.

So how does eBay do it? They act quickly. eBay’s intentions are to release a new app every five weeks, providing their customers with a variety of shopping capabilities.  Not only are they enabling busy consumers with a seamless shopping experience in the palm of their hands, they do it in a way that will continue to increase revenue for the company.

This brings me to my next point, since apparel is eBay’s number one selling category, it’s no surprise they decided to use it to their benefit by creating an apparel app.  Their newest app is a fashion application, targeting fashionistas everywhere.  Being quite the “shop-a-holic” myself, the minute I read the article I became intrigued and instantly went for my iPhone.  The free application lets you browse items, virtually try them on, and buy what you desire easily with a couple quick swipes of your finger - a busy shopper’s dream.  It also provides shoppers with multiple features such as a personalized closet, an outfit builder, social media sharing functions, an eBay Fashion Vault, and a virtual style gallery.

So what makes eBay the number one mobile commerce retailer in the U.S.?  It’s their ability to innovate and target customers with a variety of easy to use applications that provide a new and exciting way to shop as well as a personalized shopping experience for everyone.

Don’t get left behind the curve, make sure your technology vendor provides you with a platform that keeps you ahead of pace and provides you with the innovation you need to compete.

(This article was contributed by Meagan Armaral)

By Scott Todaro, Sr. Director, Product Strategy

I woke up this morning thinking that I finally had a grip on where the mobile commerce market was going and how fast it was going to get there. Note to self, guess again. I was blown away by some of the mobile adoption numbers as I read the latest reports.

We have now crossed over 60 million smartphone users in the U.S., more than double the number of a year ago, and Nielsen projects the number will more than double to 140 million web-based phones by the third quarter of 2011, when smartphones will overtake conventional cell phones. Mobile commerce in 2010 will generate upwards of $5 billion in revenue, more than double 2009.

What does this mean? Quite simply, if you are not thinking about mobile commerce now you will find yourself crushed like an ant by your competition. That said, mobile commerce does not need to be a daunting task as many online retailers already have the tools they need to build, maintain, and grow a mobile site. All the same data that is stored in your ecommerce platform (catalog, pricing, promotions, orders, customer information, etc.) can be reused for the mobile site and your merchandising and marketing can be managed through the same UI you are using today.

Learn how Demandware Mobile can give you the strength to achieve your “high hopes” of launching your first mobile site.

by Scott Todaro, Demandware Product Strategy

I recently purchased a shiny new iPhone 4. The first thing I noticed after I took the iPhone out of the box was the stunning 960x640 resolution display on the device. You actually couldn’t see the individual pixels on the 3.5 inch screen, it was that tight. It got me thinking about my laptop from 2001 and its 800x600 resolution on a 12” screen. Take a second to ponder that reality, the iPhone 4 has a better screen resolution than a device that was supposedly optimized for Web browsing and shopping only nine years ago.

Why is this significant? The answer is simple – the more pixels, the more content a retailer can get on a web page. The more content available to the consumer like product details, images and customer reviews, the better the shopping experience. The better the experience, the more likely the consumer will be enticed to make purchases from a mobile device. Even with the high resolution laptop screens available today, retailers still leverage features like zoom to improve conversion. Many mobile browsers offer the ability to zoom in on an image for more detail. As these rich website capabilities are transferred to the mobile devices, the willingness of consumers to transact should increase.

Below is an example comparing the sharpness of the web content on the iPhone 3Gs (1/4 the number pixels) to the iPhone 4G. There is an obvious advantage in clarity that the iPhone 4 owner enjoys over the 3Gs when viewing product images and text.

This retina pleasing trend does not end with the latest installment of the iPhone as almost all Google and Windows Mobile smartphones hitting the market today carry a minimum screen resolution of 800x480. I recently learned that the next release of the Google Android OS (codename Gingerbread) will accommodate resolutions of 1280X760 on devices with screens larger than 4 inches. When does it end?

Large high resolution screens or not, data shows that consumers are willing to shop on a mobile phone for non-digital items like apparel, health and beauty, sporting goods equipment, consumer electronics, and books. Forrester states that 2% of overall online revenue is coming from mobile devices at retailers that have live mobile storefronts or native mobile applications. For more Forrester data on mobile adoption and a mobile case study on Barney’s New York, download the recorded webinar.

by Scott Todaro, Demandware Product Strategy

I don’t know about you, but recently I have been doing a majority of my shopping through my mobile device. Apparently, I am not the only one since retailers are starting to see their mobile revenue reach as high as 5% of their overall online revenue (Forrester reports that it is between 2-3% on average depending on company size). Billions of people worldwide rarely leave their house without their mobile phones and, as a result, PC’s are slowly becoming passé. 

Even though the mobile browsing experience can be rewarding, the one step in the process most shoppers find tedious is checking out. To type in all of your billing and shipping information on a tiny on-screen keyboard is downright painful.  In order to improve the mobile shopping experience, especially as it pertains to checkout, it is no surprise that retailers are turning to PayPal and Amazon Payments for driving conversion on the mobile web.

PayPal, for instance, recently launched their mobile Express Checkout which offers online retailers a more direct and simplified payment process. For consumers shopping on iPhones, Blackberrys and Android devices, PayPal’s mobile express checkout provides an effortless payment experience. With the understanding that shopping on the go has become more common, PayPal’s payment process ensures less complication and frustration. According to PayPal, Mobile PayPal transactions keep increasing and the company expects to see $500 million in mobile transactions this year.

Although integrating payment solutions into your mobile storefront or native application can be time consuming, Demandware offers pre-built integration code and documentation to both PayPal Express Checkout and Amazon Mobile Payment free for all customers. Check-out the Demandware LINK Marketplace to learn more about other free integrations.

The 2010 Internet Retailer event was the most well attended ecommerce event ever with 6,371 attendees (4,250 paid) and the most content rich with 4 tracks on a variety of digital commerce related topics. The event also featured a large contingency of over 400 exhibitors ranging from ecommerce platforms to mobile storefronts to social applications. The keynote session commenced with an industry update that featured a 14% growth in sales for Q1 2010 over Q1 2009 for the US. Also, the ratio of overall web revenue to in-store revenue grew from 7.2% to 8% year over year for Q1, strengthening the claim that retailers can no longer be channel neutral. What struck me most were four recurring themes that echoed throughout the event: multi-channel integration, mobile, social, and international expansion.

Multi-channel Integration
Retailers have been talking about true multichannel integration since 2000. At IRCE several retailers presented multi-channel examples of how they have realized this goal. None was more heartening then the presentation by Imran Jooma's, Sears VP of E-Commerce, who spoke about their "Manage My Life" initiative. I highly recommend you see firsthand how Sears has unified the purchasing experience between the online, call center, and mobile channels for creating customer convenience. It was abundantly clear that retailers are thinking beyond just sharing basic order data across customer touch points, but are now focused on differentiated strategies for consumer interactions.

Mobile
Although there were many topics covered during the sessions, a good number of them discussed how mobile would affect their business. An eye-opening number was delivered during the keynote that currently 60% of people on earth have a cell phone. Of that 60%, smartphones are now making up 30% of the mobile phone market. Brian Walker from Forrester shared a stat that up to 3% of purchases made online were influenced by a mobile device. The overall view across the retail community is that within the next 2 years, transactions made on a mobile device would represent a significant portion of overall revenue.

Social
Social marketing took center stage as a number of retailers presented their best Facebook and Twitter campaigns. What I found most interesting was hearing that retailers were making money selling through Facebook; there were many applications that were built to allow consumers to find products and transact without leaving the friendly confines of their Facebook page. Open Graph was a hot topic as many retailers discussed the indexing of their product pages into Facebook and seeing results. Twitter on the other hand, had mixed reactions as to its level of success, many citing that their customer base did not use Twitter often enough to make it a worthwhile marketing medium.

International Expansion
Retailers are now seeing the advantage of using digital channels to expand their brand reach into other countries. For the first time in recent memory I heard US brands clearly articulate strategies as to how they would go into other markets.

In conclusion, though there is plenty of room for growth in the online retailing sector, retailers have truly embraced and realized the benefits of selling through digital mediums. A sign of good things to come.

By Adam Forrest

Congratulations to Columbia Sportswear who launched their recent mobile commerce experience using the Demandware eCommerce Platform. Columbia Sportswear's customers are active, enthusiatic, and brand loyalists who want information about Columbia products at all times. 

Using Demandware Mobile, Columbia has been able to easily replicate the same product assortment that is available on their ecommerce site as well as including robust product information such as reviews through Bazaarvoice and even the ability to lookup nearby stores that sell Columbia products using your smartphones GPS through an integration with Where2GetIt.  Enabling a great multi-channel experience for the customer and retailer! 

"The launch of Columbia's mobile portal is another way Columbia is bringing innovation to outdoor consumers," said Paul Zaengle, senior director, Ecommerce, Columbia Sportswear Company. "The use of mobile devices to access the Internet is growing dramatically and branded websites are the No. 1 way that consumers research products. We are thrilled to offer a rich, mobile experience for consumers to access our brand, whether they're shopping at one of our retail partner's stores, at our company-owned stores, at home or on the go."

Congratulations again to the team at Columbia...you guys are truly doing your customers proud.

As Mobile Internet Devices Outsell Computers In 2009

By Adam Forrest

Thanks to the folks at Practical Commerce we know that for the entire year of 2009 Mobile Internet Devices outsold computers.  According to the article, 450 million Mobile Internet Devices were sold compared to 306 million computers.  Now while the amount of commerce currently completed via mobile is neglegible the steep adoption curve is right around the corner...are you ready?

Consumers are smart, savvy, and more technologically advanced than ever before.  They are constantly using the mobile phone as an extension of everyday life.  Forget dialing 411 phone numbers or addresses, forget needing to go home to compare prices on your computer, and forget having to rely on Consumer Reports for recommendations.  All of this information is at the fingertips of consumers, and whether they will transact today, tomorrow, or in the future; if you are not prepared for the battle, you may have already lost.

Make sure your site is ready for mobile commerce.  Pick the medium that best fits your company - whether it is through a WAP site, mobile optimized site, or native application - put your best foot forward or risk your competitor taking your consumer.