Which Retailers are Mobile?

The advent of the smart phone has done two things that require retailers to respond: taken away some traffic from older internet sources, and opened a new type of opportunity for mobile interactions.

Initial offerings were essentially to offer the same online web experience but in mobile.  Going way back to the introduction of the first iPhone one of the enormous selling points was the ability to view the full New York Times website on your phone.

Wow!

Quickly the limitations of that experience became clear.  A tiny screen you hold in your hand requires a different approach from the interactions one has with a full PC screen.

A few retailers really really get that.  Here is a story on the best experiences:

http://www.mytotalretail.com/article/mobile-cx-study-gives-best-buy-home-depot-and-target-top-marks/

Here is a snippet from that piece:

As consumers spend more time shopping on smartphones, their expectations for mobile experiences have soared. With mobile interactions influencing $1.05 trillion in offline sales in 2016, the successful retailers of 2017 will be those that offer consumers mobile sites with a frictionless path to purchase that also integrates into omnichannel shopping experiences.

Which omnichannel retailers are doing it right and setting the bar the highest for merchants looking to deliver a seamless mobile customer experience (CX)?

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Amazon Strikes Again ... at the Geek Squad

Best Buy took a big hit, $1B, through its technology service known as Geek Squad when Amazon announced they were launching a competitor.

Call this the Amazon Effect.  When Amazon comes in they blow the doors off the hinges.

Read on:

https://www.recode.net/2017/7/10/15947690/best-buy-stock-drop-amazon-geek-squad-competitor

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Best Buy Technology Center in Seattle

Following in the steps of other major retailers Best Buy is forming a technology center in one of the major technology hubs in the United States.  Rather than the San Francisco area like Target and Walmart they've chosen Seattle.

http://www.retailonlineintegration.com/aggregatedcontent/best-buy-open-engineering-center-south-lake-union

Here is the Seattle Times with the full blog entry:

http://blogs.seattletimes.com/jontalton/2015/02/18/best-buy-to-open-engineering-center-in-south-lake-union/

Here is a snippet from that piece:

Best Buy today said it would open a technology development center in South Lake Union, taking the top floor of the Seattle Times Building. Set to begin operations in late spring, the office will employ more than 50 engineers, product managers, web architects and developers in the next year and is expected to expand to more than 100 e-commerce professionals over time.

Over at eTail West we have news of a Target exec coining the phrase 'Brick & Mobile' rather than 'Brick & Mortar'.  That certainly points to the growing power of mobile, and technology, in the modern retail space.  I'll have a blog entry on that shortly.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Black Friday News - Apple Pay, Google, and the Evolution of the Day

Hello Everyone,

I hope the turkey was good to you last week.  On with the news.

First up is news on Apple Pay and how usage data has played out this holiday season.  Overall the churn rate seems to be ... not good.  People try it in small numbers and largely do not return. Looks like they need a more compelling reason for people to use this.  Check out the numbers on the survey.  Very interesting responses.

http://www.pymnts.com/in-depth/2014/apple-pay-a-bust-on-black-friday-new-data-shows/#.VHynXtLF_9Y

Next is a story on the evolution of Black Friday.  Times are a changin' folks.

https://nrf.com/news/three-factors-influencing-the-evolution-of-black-friday-shopping

Next is a pair of stories about shoppers and Black Friday, headlined by Google's analysis:

https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/articles/shoppers-go-mobile-black-friday-weekend.html

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/238928/in-weaker-black-friday-weekend-mobile-is-the-big.html

That second story is worth quoting the headline:

In Weaker Black Friday Weekend, Mobile Is The Big Winner

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

PS  One item of note should be included here.  Best Buy's website went down on Black Friday.  The good news here is the reason why and there is nuance to it that is very interesting.  We've seen retail websites crash before but for all the wrong reasons.  On this day the site went down due to huge traffic and much of that traffic came from mobile devices.  Wow!  That is a great problem to have.  Here is one story on this:
http://fortune.com/2014/11/28/best-buys-website-down/
Welcome to December folks.  Ready to do your shopping?