By Wilson Kerr

Consider this: Over 50% of Americans now own a web-connected smartphone, yet only about 30% of online retailers and brands have websites optimized and formatted to serve these increasingly mobile consumers.

I call this the “mobile commerce gap”. The reason for this inequity between demand and supply, in my opinion, is because the internal resources required for online retailers to properly develop a mobile commerce site have been pulled in other directions, even as smartphone adoption rates have exploded. As a result, a majority of online retailers are offering their mobile customers a poor shopping experience or brand interaction. This, in turn, lowers conversion rates and leads to missed sales opportunities. Consumers are left with the general impression that these retailers or brands are not serving them well.  

Think about it, how many times have you visited a site on your smartphone and immediately left when you saw it was not optimized for your device? According to Google, 57% of people surveyed would not recommend a business with a poor mobile site and 40% of consumers would visit the competition if the mobile site they are directed to is subpar. 

Why this “gap”? In my opinion, the first big distraction came in 2009 when retailers and brands alike were told they “must build an iPhone app NOW”. While apps are great for some things, an array of surveys and studies have concluded that consumers much-prefer a mobile site over an app, especially for mobile commerce. The second distraction was the social media craze of 2010, as Facebook, Twitter, and the rest dominated headlines and became “must-haves”. Pinterest is the hot one now. Both distractions soaked up internal IT resources and distracted online retailers from building the mobile-optimized sites needed to serve their increasingly-mobile customers.

5 Points To Close The Mobile Commerce Gap

So, what are the factors online retailers should consider, as they investigate offering their customers the ability to convert sales from their mobile devices via a mobile commerce site? I hope the following 5 points will clear some things up:

1) There is No “Mobile Web”

While it is true that “standard” websites can be viewed on a web-enabled smartphone, few consumers are willing to “pinch and zoom” their way into a converted sale on a standard site jammed into a small screen. Ever tried this? It’s not fun.

While the need for mobile-optimized sites might seem obvious, many retailers justify not investing in mobile commerce by citing low mobile-originating traffic to their  current site (usually 2-5%).  Of course, this low-traffic negative feedback loop is caused by the fact that mobile customers seldom return to a site after being greeted with such a poor user experience. The retailer then concludes there is no need to invest in the “mobile web”. Again, there is no “mobile web”.  There is only the web viewed on a mobile device.

2) Mobile Commerce is NOT Mobile Payments

There is a hot mess going on right now regarding mobile payments at point of sale - when the phone is used as a “mobile wallet” to pay for physical goods. While mobile payments might-well emerge as an issue retailers need to address, this  is not the same as mobile commerce. Mobile payments involve banks, credit cards, investments in point of sale infrastructure, coupons, NFC,  loyalty program integration, and a whole array of complex issues that will take years to work out. Mobile  commerce is simply the act of buying something online, from your mobile phone, via a mobile-optimized version of a current ecommerce website. Retailers should not confuse the two, or delay the launch of a mobile commerce site while trying to understand mobile payment options and what uniform technology may or may not emerge victorious from the fray.

3) It’s Paramount To “Mobile Actualize” Marketing

Remember, every time a consumer clicks on a marketing or advertising link to your website on their mobile phone, they should land on a site that is optimized for the device they are accessing that message on.  Whether a tweet, a Facebook post, a banner ad, a QR code, an SMS message, or an email,  the mobile consumer should be able to convert an action (a click) easily, via a mobile commerce-enabled site. If you are a retailer and do not have a mobile commerce site and are spending money on social media marketing or mobile advertising, you are likely flushing money down the drain by paying to promote links to a very poor customer experience. Try opening a magazine and scanning the QR codes you see. Incredibly, about half will land you on a site not optimized for mobile.

4) Integrate, Don’t Duplicate

There are several options for creating a mobile commerce site. You could use a transcoder to “screen scrape” your standard website and shrink it to fit a mobile screen. You could “sub-out” your mobile commerce efforts to a third party, by letting them “handle it” with their own separate and duplicative mobile store. OR you could leverage and extend your current, proven and trusted  e-commerce operations into mobile via an integrated solution. This is a superior approach, in my opinion, as it means you are avoiding duplication, while also maintaining full in-house control and fueling mobile commerce from the same infrastructure you trust today for your e-commerce operations.  A software-based integration approach takes a bit more effort on the front-side, but the long-term benefits are significant, as this single effort, if done properly, can serve as the foundation for not only mobile commerce, but also tablet commerce, Facebook  commerce and commerce-enabled iPhone and Android apps, as needed.

5) Devote IT Resources, Involve Marketing

The single biggest reason I hear retailers give for not moving on mobile commerce is a lack of IT resources. Simply put, this is a poor excuse. While it may be true that IT is backed up, the measurable, tracked ROI that mobile commerce offers should elevate this to the top of the list. The ROI is extremely rapid, by even the most conservative estimates of the resulting tracked, incremental mobile commerce sales. Retailers and brands that are out ahead of the curve will be the biggest winners, as long as they plan for growth and chose the right approach. Oh, and they should involve their marketing departments. Increasingly, marketing is seeking ways to engage with mobile consumers and they will need a conversion engine behind this engagement, to track ROI.

The Time Is Now

Your customers are mobile and they are very likely trying to access your site on their smartphones right now. If they still see your “standard” e-commerce site crammed onto a small screen, you are delivering a poor customer experience and, as such, are missing incremental mobile sales. Find the resources, take the time, and consider building/launching a mobile site ASAP that leverages and extends current online sales operations.You will provide consumers a positive mobile interaction with your brand that also drives significant incremental, tracked revenue. Mobile commerce is here and the time to take advantage is now!

__________________

Wilson Kerr (@WLLK) is VP Sales and Business Development for Unbound Commerce in Boston. Contact him today to learn more about how Unbound can help your business bridge the “Gap”. Mobile: 303-249-2083.

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Over the last 4 or 5 years there has been vigorous debate regarding when, exactly, the true potential of mobile will be realized.

Mobile mapping, mobile TV, check-ins, mobile payments, push ads, games, QR Codes, NFC, Daily Deals, SMS, virtual mobile currency, pop-up ads, barcode scanning, coupons, and a litany of others have had their moment in the sun, but none have generated commerce upside at a truly transformational level.

Turning Point 2011

Finally, as 2011 came to a close, we saw real, tracked and reported numbers that were far too numerically impressive to be dismissed as a fad or trend. These numbers were tied to Mobile Commerce.

When I say mobile commerce, I do not mean mobile payments, which I define as paying for items at checkout, using your mobile phone. I an referring to online sales converted on mobile websites specifically designed and formatted for this purpose. Example: m.finishline.com

Retailers & Brands Lag Behind, Fueling The Opportunity

For years, online retailers and brands waited, while their customers flocked to web-connected smartphones and, as a result, small screens are now crammed with large format websites never designed for this purpose.

In late 2011 retailers and brands finally started waking up and launching mobile optimized sites, and this fueled explosive growth and big profits for those still out ahead of the curve.

Mobile consumers can finally land on mobile-optimized commerce-enabled websites and the traffic to these sites can be converted into transactions in a trusted, secure environment. These mobile conversion metrics are the key and the resulting revenue numbers are real, undeniable, and impactful.

Changing Expectations

As more brands and retailers launch mobile commerce sites, consumer expectations have changed rapidly. In fact, most consumers surveyed now expect mobile sites to not only function, but to work better than  standard e-commerce sites.

Retailers and big brands are finally realizing that mobile commerce is not some fringe distraction to their e-commerce team, but, rather, a way to add 10-20% to their bottom line in incremental revenue. That’s right, retailers and brands are not stealing from Peter to pay Paul, and most see no drop in “traditional” online sales. It’s all upside.

For athletic shoe retail giant Finish Line, their mobile site now makes up 14% of their total online traffic. For adult online retail leader Adam & Eve, mobile commerce accounted for a whopping 8% of their total revenue, only 2 weeks after it was launched.

Still not convinced that mobile commerce has ushered in a revenue-fueled turning point that should/will change the entire tenor of the mobile space? Here are the numbers.

2011 Mobile Commerce Stats

-PayPal saw a 397% increase in consumers shopping via PayPal Mobile on Cyber Monday 2011, vs 2010.

-Rue La La saw an almost 200% increase in mobile sales on Cyber Monday 2011 vs 2010.

-Ebay’s Black Friday mobile commerce sales were up 516%, over 2010.

-2011 mobile commerce sales were up 91.4% over 2010.- In 2012, mobile commerce is expected to increase another 73.1% to $11.6 billion.

-The average mobile commerce purchase was $123 (vs. $87 for purchases from desktop PCs).

-Shopping by mobile users doubled from 1.87% to 3.87% of all online purchases in the past 9 months!

-During the 2011 Holiday season, 44% of all Google searches for last minute gifts and store locator terms were from mobile devices

-Of consumers surveyed, 70% use their smartphones in stores and 77% have contacted a business via mobile.

-64% of smartphone owners age 18-24 used a smartphone to find a deal this Holiday season.

-According to IBM, mobile traffic made up 18.3% of all online traffic on Christmas day 2011.

Conclusions

Mobile commerce transactions can occur anytime, anywhere and are being initiated on smartphones carried religiously by almost 50% of Americans. Online sales are no longer occurring only in front of a desktop or laptop, but anywhere and anytime. Retailers and brands should take notice.

Even more importantly, mobile commerce sales can be triggered by real world interactions with marketing initiatives most retailers and brands are already paying for! Printed mailings or catalogs, in-store point of purchase displays, peer to peer recommendations, signage, social media campaigns, emails, etc can all serve as mobile trigger points, when they are accessed by mobile consumers. The (largely untracked) digital media marketing spend already occurring can be tapped to drive mobile commerce, with tracked results. This means that smart brands (or their agencies) can (and should) be able to adjust these campaigns on the fly, to maximize ROI, in the form of tracked incremental mobile commerce revenue.

The biggest takeaway here is directed toward online retailers or brands who still do not have an integrated mobile commerce solution. Read and digest the numbers above and ask yourself this simple question, “How easy it is for a mobile consumer to visit my website and convert a sale?” (Hint: Try it!).

If you do not have a mobile site, the answer will be painfully obvious. Make fixing this your 2012 New Year’s resolution!

_______________________________

Wilson Kerr (@WLLK) is VP of Sales and Business Development for Unbound Commerce.  Contact Wilson today to learn more. Mobile: 303-249-2083.

Some of the stats in this post were compiled from various sources by Gabrielle Kalika of Mobile Marketer. I have added added more my own, also compiled from various sources. All stats can be verified, via Google search.

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American Medical ID has rolled out a commerce-enabled mobile site to let medical patients buy identification tags via their handsets.

American Medical ID is launching the mobile site after realizing that medical patients need a place to buy ID jewelry in places such as hospitals and doctor offices. The company is working with Unbound Commerce on this initiative.

“Most interactions with medical professionals and pharmacists happen when consumers are being diagnosed and treated,” said Wilson Kerr, director of business development and sales at Unbound Commerce, Boston.

“The mobile site from American Medical ID means consumers can purchase potentially lifesaving custom-engraved medical ID jewelry, from the hospital, doctor’s office or pharmacy,” he said.

Personalized message
One of the main hooks for using the American Medical ID mobile site is that it lets consumers customize their medical ID tags similar to the company’s Web site.

To access the mobile site, consumers can enter http://m.americanmedical-ID.com on their mobile browser.

The homepage features the company’s products and shows users how the medical tags can be used and what they look like.

Consumers can then filter their choices at the top of the page, which is broken into bracelets, necklaces and accessories.

The mobile site also features a deal section to highlight products that are on sale.

Once consumers have selected an item, they can put their personal touch on it with a custom engraving that are approximately 16 characters long, depending on the product.

Users can also spell check their engravings and send them to friends and family via email.

American Medical ID is also using QR codes in its direct mail materials that link the company’s mobile site, which is helpful for patients looking to buy items on the spot at a hospital or doctor’s office after being diagnosed.

Users can also call a 1-800 American Medical ID number to get instant help.

“A mobile commerce site offers consumers the ability to convert a time-sensitive transaction, when and where they are most likely to convert a purchase,” Mr. Kerr said.

“Mobile marketing complements the site, as linking mobile click-through traffic to a non-optimized site leads to a very poor customer experience,” he said.

Mobile health

This is American Medical ID’s first foray into mobile.

The company decided to use a mobile site after seeing a significant portion of traffic coming from handsets to a non-optimized location.

American Medical ID was also able to integrate mobile into its existing marketing efforts with QR codes that led to a mobile experience.

A mobile site makes sense for the company because as consumers are diagnosed, they need a quick way to buy medical supplies and are likely to have their mobile devices on them.

“Smart retailers know that 50 percent of consumers will own a smartphone this year and mobile commerce is exploding,” Mr. Kerr said.

“Without an integrated mobile site, mobile marketing drives consumers to a site not designed to work on the device they are viewing it on,” he said.

http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/2011/12/19/american-medical-id-lets-medica...

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Unbound Commerce today announced selection by Google as a mobile commerce solution provider included in a new Google-led initiative called “GoMo,” which provides retailers the tools and resources they need to make their websites more mobile-friendly.

Framingham, MA (PRWEB) November 01, 2011

“Unbound is pleased to have been selected by Google. We are rolling out a new service offering specifically for this program, so retailers that use Google tools can rapidly become mobile-optimized, and track the linkage between Google advertising and incremental mobile commerce revenue generation,” said Wilson Kerr, Unbound’s Director of Business Development & Sales.

Google’s Mobile Ads program allows advertisers to connect with customers on the go, and to drive customer acquisition, conversion and leads, through mobile advertising campaigns. In order to help the 79% of Google’s largest advertisers who still do not have a mobile-optimized site for traffic generated from ads or organic search, Google is working to help businesses go mobile and deliver a mobile optimized site experience for potential customers.

Called gStores™, the new service from Unbound Commerce uses technology to tap into the Google tools retailers already use, like Checkout, Analytics, Commerce, and data feeds. This approach reduces friction and allows rapid and cost-effective build and deployment of mobile retail sites. Mobile sales can also be linked directly to Google mobile ad campaigns. This new service from Unbound was launched in conjunction with the launch of GoMo and retailers of any size can take advantage today, via a tiered service offering.

Retailers can link to gStores™ from the GoMo Resource Center or directly by going tohttp://www.UnboundCommerce.com/gStores.

About Unbound Commerce 
Unbound Commerce is the industry’s #1 provider of mobile commerce solutions, for Retailers seeking to reach their customers anytime and anywhere. Unbound’s unique approach treats mobile as a powerful new channel, not merely a shrunken version of a standard site. Unbound retail customers benefit from a solution directly under their control and integrated into their existing e-commerce operations. The 2011 issue of the Mobile Commerce Data Book from Internet Retailer shows Unbound Commerce as the #1 mobile commerce vendor, with an industry-leading number of mobile commerce site deployments. Unbound Commerce’s approach also delivers a social commerce store for Facebook, allowing consumers to buy where they connect through social media, as well as commerce-enabled iPhone and Android applications and in-store tablet-based mobile commerce. For additional information, please visit us http://www.UnboundCommerce.com.

About GoMo 
GoMo is a Google-led initiative dedicated to helping businesses 'Go Mobile' by providing them with the tools and resources they need to make their websites more mobile-friendly. On Google's GoMo website, participating businesses can use the GoMoMeter tool to see how their own sites look and perform on mobile devices, and get personalized recommendations for developing a more mobile-friendly experience for their sites. The GoMo site has information about current mobile trends, best practices for launching mobile sites, a list of developers ready to help companies build sites for mobile, and much more. For more information, visit: http://www.howtogomo.com

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Ed Gaskin, host of the CMO Advantage, interviews Keith Lietzke of Unbound Commerce to learn how companies can take advantage of the boom in smartphone usage and Facebook to increase the number of touchpoints with their customers, and to drive increased sales. 

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Steady growth in mobile traffic and in customers forsaking computers drove the decision.

Dover Saddlery Inc., a multichannel retailer of equestrian products, has launched a mobile commerce site, accessible through any mobile web browser by typing in the conventional URL, DoverSaddlery.com, which automatically redirects a shopper to the mobile-optimized site. The site was built by Unbound Commerce; Dover Saddlery is the m-commerce technology provider’s 125th client.

“We have noticed a dramatic increase in mobile visitors to our site and wanted to be sure we were converting these customers by providing the best possible mobile experience,” says Jason Loy, director of e-commerce.

3.3% of total traffic to the merchant’s e-commerce site in November came from mobile devices. That number grew to 3.4% in December and 3.6% in January.

“We have seen steady growth over the course of 2010 and continuing into 2011,” Loy says. “These numbers exclude iPad traffic, though, which is an experience we consider to be more akin to a desktop computer because of the size of the screen and the way our site renders on it versus a smaller screen.”

Dover Saddlery, No. 309 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide, believes m-commerce is a perfect fit for its customers.

“Our target audience is using mobile devices at an ever-increasing rate as a way to research the products they need,” Loy says. “Our customers are on the road, attending horse shows, or out in the barn, and their smartphone is the device they have with them when they determine they have a need for the types of products we offer.”

http://www.internetretailer.com/2011/02/14/dover-saddlery-trots-mobile-commerce

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More info at: 

http://www.internetretailer.com/2011/02/10/62-consumers-have-purchased-goods-...

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SMS marketing with out a mobile site or mobile site without SMS marketing are half solutions to grow mobile revenue. Retailers who build m-commerce system by integrating with their backend e-commerce stack and CRM systems will be most successful on m-Channel.

Here is an article that explains why its important:

http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/2011/02/08/most-mobile-apps-have-no-connec...

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Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4

Mobile Commerce Daily’s Mobile Commerce Outlook 2011

Sky’s The Limit For M-Commerce

By Mickey Alam Khan

The mobile commerce opportunities for retailers are several.

First, mobile expands the number of channels for retailers. Contrary to what the Internet did to other channels such as the catalog, mobile will have an incremental effect on overall retail sales, and not cannibalize ecommerce.

Second, mobile adds legs to other channels. Expect mobile tactics such as SMS marketing to drive traffic to stores with incentives such as coupons, alerts, discounts, new-merchandise updates and store openings.

Third, mobile adds a social element to the shopping experience. Happy shoppers will tweet, Facebook Like or post positive comments on feedback pages if the retail experience on mobile or in-store was satisfactory and more.

Fourth, mobile allows for price and product comparison on the spot. While this is a double-edged sword – after all, Amazon is poised to become the de facto mobile comparison shopping engine for mobile commerce – it also offers a new layer of transparency to the shopping process.

Fifth, mobile is an excellent marketing channel for retailers. Its potential to add to the overall customer loyalty program is mouth-watering. If there is one area that retailers are neglecting it is this: they are not moving fast enough to capture opt-in mobile numbers to market to consumers.

A CRM program without a mobile component is an incomplete program. It is a must to communicate with customers in the channel they are most comfortable with, and that today is mobile – via SMS and email.

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Very good article:

http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/2011/02/04/three-keys-to-building-a-mobile...

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ABI Research published a report recently on the state of mobile commerce in the US, estimating the market will reach $4.9 billion as we close 2010.

More specifically, purchases attributed to mobile shopping will account for roughly $3.4 billion this year, while travel-related mobile purchases alone should account for another $1.5 billion.  As usual, the report attributes most of the growth to the surge in smartphone use.

 What’s interesting is the breakdown of what consumers are buying via mobile devices.  Travel-related products and services take the top spot (31%), followed by computers and electronics (20%), apparel (13%), books/music/DVDs (9%), office supplies (7%), housewares/home furnishings (6%) and entertainment tickets (3%). All other products and services account for 12% of the mobile shopping spending.

Mobile commerce in the US has some major catching up to do, as ABI reports the mobile channel accounts for over 17 percent of all eCommerce sales in Japan.  On a global scale, ABI believes mobile shopping will account for over $163 billion in sales, or 12% of all eCommerce sales.

Source: http://www.mobilemarketingwatch.com/mobile-commerce-in-the-us-to-reach-4-9-bi...

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Using a cell phone to shop on eBay is big in San Francisco, along with most metropolitan areas. But mobile commerce has yet to catch on in the West Texas desert, most of South Dakota and rural Illinois.

Maybe the reception is poor.

These insights are highlighted on a Web site introduced by eBay on Wednesday that shows shopping trends on its mobile phone app over the week of Thanksgiving, plus Cyber Monday. Visitors to the site can review maps that indicate where mobile shopping was strongest (and weakest) and compare sales totals in 20 different categories, like women’s clothing and cars and trucks.

The “heat map” shows through shading the changes in mobile commerce buying patterns in specific locations. 

Sales through eBay’s mobile phone apps rose 230 percent from Nov. 22 to Nov. 29, compared with the same period a year ago, in the six countries the Web site covers. They are the United States, Canada, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Australia.

EBay expects $1.5 billion in gross merchandise sales via mobile this year, triple the amount from last year. Mobile shopping is gaining acceptance on other e-commerce sites like Amazon.com, which said over the summer that it had sold more than $1 billion in products over mobile devices during the prior 12 months.

On eBay, Apple’s iPhone led all others in terms of use by buyers, accounting for two thirds of all transactions.

Full article at http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/01/ebay-shows-where-mobile-shopping-is-...

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Unbound Commerce announces the availability of its new mobile commerce service: Mobile PresenceTM for Yahoo! merchants. Developed with the support of Yahoo! Small Business, this new offering makes it easy and cost-effective for merchants to deploy a mobile commerce site, and is seamlessly integrated with their Yahoo! store. Mobile Presence from Unbound is a complete service, including mobile-optimized product catalog and shopping cart, and is cost-effective for almost any merchant. Fees are $50 - $125 / month, plus a one-time fee of $300 for basic implementation.

Since we’ve deployed our mobile site, not only have visitors greatly increased, but mobile conversion rates have gone up 500% and AOV increased by 27%.

Newtonville, MA (PRWEB) December 1, 2010

Unbound Commerce announces the availability of its new mobile commerce service: Mobile PresenceTM for Yahoo! merchants. Developed with the support of Yahoo! Small Business, this new offering makes it easy and cost-effective for merchants to deploy a mobile commerce site, and is seamlessly integrated with their Yahoo! store. Mobile Presence from Unbound is a complete service, including mobile-optimized product catalog and shopping cart, and is cost-effective for almost any merchant. Fees are $50 - $125 / month, plus a one-time fee of $300 for basic implementation.

“Our merchants are very aware of the growth in mobile internet usage among their buyers. Mobile commerce came through as one of the top priorities in our market research,” said Paul Boisvert, Director of Product Management at Yahoo! Small Business. “Unbound Commerce’s platform has proven to be a great fit with Yahoo! Merchant Services. We received very positive feedback from the market trial we just ran with Unbound. We are delighted that Unbound Commerce is now releasing the product to all interested Yahoo! merchants.”

SERVING THE ANYTIME/ANYWHERE CUSTOMER 
More Selling Opportunities, More Revenue 
Mobile commerce lets your buyers reach your store – any time and any place a need or urge arises. Online retailers will fall behind if they insist that their customers can purchase and interact only when they are behind a desktop or a laptop computer. Unbound’s new mobile commerce merchants report on their experiences: 

•     “Cyberweld’s customers are professionals and hobbyists, working in the field or in the shop. They aren’t spending a lot of time behind a PC,” notes Bob Goodliffe, President of J.W. Goodliffe & Son, who operateshttp://www.Cyberweld.com. “Our mobile site lets us reach them where they are doing their work, and when they are most likely to find that they need the products we sell.”

 

 

    “Our customers were telling us that their computer usage at work is being monitored, cutting down on personal use. Including buying our candy!” reported Pam Macharola, a partner at Blair Candy (http://www.BlairCandy.com). “We have so many more chances to interact with customers if they can check out our products on their breaks or at lunch.” Blair Candy sells bulk candy, and candy not often found in local stores, online to both retail and wholesale customers. “Our new mobile site is so easy to browse by phone, and our customers have really taken to it. It’s been profitable for us since the very start.”

 

 

    The Director of Retail & E-Commerce at a prominent DC-based Museum notes that “Our customers are into technology and gadgets, so mobile is a must for us. The initial response is beyond what we expected. For example, visitors to the Museum purchase items from our Museum Store on the way out, but sometimes there’s not enough time to shop. Our new mobile site lets them take our product catalog along with them in their pocket, allowing us an opportunity to engage with them, and for them to make purchases on their way home.”

 

 

    “We’re surprised at how much traffic we’re seeing from smartphones,” says Mike Eldridge, President, Safety Glasses USA (http://www.safetyglassesusa.com). “Our customers are at job sites. I really like the idea that they are able access us from anywhere.”

 

EASE OF DEPLOYMENT, EASE OF OWNERSHIP 
Unbound’s mobile commerce solution for Yahoo! merchants is designed to be very easy to deploy. “Going mobile has been really hands off for us,” reports David Hauser, President of ABC Underwear (http://www.ABCUnderwear.com). “All we’ve had to do was to make sure our product categories lined up with what we wanted. Easy for us, and ten times easier for our mobile customers. The integration is absolutely seamless.”

“It’s been really easy,” says Mike Neff, Director of E-Commerce at Sports Unlimited, a full line Internet sporting goods retailer (http://www.SportsUnlimitedInc.com). “It’s clear that Unbound has done all the leg work for us. This is one of the easiest e-commerce initiatives we’ve ever done.”

Srinivasarao Nandiwada, CTO of Unbound Commerce, points to the importance of the seamless integration with Yahoo! Merchant Solutions. “We’ve taken great pains to make certain that this is painless for our customers. Merchants only have to manage their products on Yahoo!, just as they already do, and the mobile site automatically stays up to date with new products, prices and availability. Orders placed on mobile use the Yahoo! shopping cart, but formatted for mobile, so that merchants can handle their mobile-generated orders just as they do their online ones.”

The Director of Retail & E-Commerce at a prominent DC-based Museum summarizes: “This has been a BIG win for us, and a very positive experience to date. It was very smart of Unbound Commerce to develop a cost-effective solution for this customer base, and definitely a win for Yahoo! store merchants.”

THE 3X EFFECT: MOBILE-INFLUENCED SALES 
Merchants want to see a hard ROI from their mobile commerce initiatives and Unbound Commerce’s customers are getting that. Mike Neff of Sports Unlimited offered: “Of course, we’ve noticed the growth in our mobile visitors over time. Since we’ve deployed our mobile site, not only have visitors greatly increased, but mobile conversion rates have gone up 500% and AOV increased by 27%. Mobile is giving us a 1.25% cost of sale for mobile-competed orders. I’ll take that any day!”

But looking only at mobile-completed orders misses a big part of the story. “Retailers that deploy mobile-optimized sites benefit all their channels,” notes Keith Lietzke, Marketing VP at Unbound Commerce. “Our customers find their mobile product catalogs are an on-ramp to their call centers. One of our largest retailers reports that nearly 1% of mobile site visitors place calls to their call center. Mobile retailers also observe their customers using their mobile phones to find products that interest them, and then buy them later online.”

“Our call centers are now getting inbound calls from customers who found us through mobile search,” reports David Hauser, President, ABC Underwear. “We never got these calls before we deployed our mobile site. The other benefit we’re seeing is that customers at our competitors’ brick & mortar store can check our prices before making a purchase there.” A prominent DC-based Museum notes that their mobile site has lead to increased responses from their email marketing campaigns. Compelling e-mail offers opened on mobile devices are often saved to “favorites” so that orders can be placed at a later time, resulting in a longer order cycle and slightly higher sales conversion. 
At the recent Mobile Commerce Forum, sponsored by Internet Retailer, Forrester estimated that the value of mobile-influenced sales exceed mobile-completed orders by at least a factor of 3 for most retailers.

AVAILABLE NOW 
Effective immediately, Mobile Presence for Yahoo! merchants is available for purchase from Unbound Commerce. Interested merchants can sign up and learn more by visiting our sign-up page athttp://ystores.unboundcommerce.com/signup/pr.html. Or email us at info (at) UnboundCommerce (dot) com.

About Unbound Commerce 
Unbound Commerce is a leading provider of mobile commerce solutions, designed specifically for retailers who seek to reach the anytime-anywhere buyer, and who want to leverage their existing assets and applications. The 2011 issue of the Mobile Commerce Data Book from Internet Retailer, showed Unbound Commerce as the top mobile commerce vendor with an industry-leading number of mobile web deployments for retailers. Unbound Commerce solutions are available as licensed software or via the software-as-a-service mobile. For additional information, please visit us at http://www.UnboundCommerce.com. 
Mobile Presence is a trademark of Unbound Commerce.

 

PRWeb link: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/12/prweb4841324.htm

 

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Yahoo gives the mobile tech provider the go-ahead after a successful trial run.

After a months-long market trial with 20 retailers, Unbound Commerce is officially unveiling its mobile commerce platform for retailers running their web stores on the Yahoo Merchant Services e-commerce platform. Dubbed Mobile Presence for Yahoo, the mobile technology, which displays a merchant’s entire product catalog and enables complete purchases, was developed with the support of Yahoo Small Businessand allows merchants with Yahoo stores to go mobile quickly.

Setting up a store goes quickly because of the integration work Unbound Commerce and Yahoo already have performed as part of the technology offering. And costs are relatively low: Retailers pay a one-time implementation fee of $300 and then a monthly fee of $50 if they’re on the Yahoo standard platform or $125 if they’re on the Yahoo professional platform.

“Our merchants are very aware of the growth in mobile Internet usage among their buyers. Mobile commerce came through as one of the top priorities in our market research,” says Paul Boisvert, director of product management at Yahoo Small Business. “Unbound Commerce’s platform has proven to be a great fit with Yahoo Merchant Services. We received very positive feedback from the market trial we just ran with Unbound.”

“Of course, we’ve noticed the growth in our mobile visitors over time,” says Mike Neff, director of e-commerce at Sports Unlimited. “Since we’ve deployed our mobile site, not only have visitors greatly increased, but mobile conversion rates have gone up 500% and average order value has increased 27%.”Word from retailers in the market trial—there are now 70 retailers using the mobile platform—has been positive.

But looking only at mobile-completed orders misses a big part of the story, Unbound Commerce says. “Retailers that deploy mobile-optimized sites benefit all their channels,” says Keith Lietzke, marketing vice president at Unbound. “Our customers find their mobile product catalogs are an on-ramp to their call centers. One of our largest retailers reports that nearly 1% of mobile site visitors place calls to their call center. Mobile retailers also observe their customers using their mobile phones to find products that interest them, and then buy them later online.”

Other retailers from the market trial of Mobile Presence for Yahoo say they are now poised to reap rewards asmobile web usage soars:

• “Our new mobile site is so easy to browse by phone, and our customers have really taken to it,” says Pam Macharola, a partner at Blair Candy. “It’s been profitable for us since the very start.”
• “Our call centers are now getting inbound calls from customers who found us through mobile search,” reports David Hauser, president of ABC Underwear. “We never got these calls before we deployed our mobile site. The other benefit we’re seeing is that customers at our competitors’ bricks-and-mortar stores can check our prices before making a purchase there.”
• “Cyberweld’s customers are professionals and hobbyists, working in the field or in the shop. They aren’t spending a lot of time behind a PC,” says Bob Goodliffe, president of J.W. Goodliffe & Son, which operates Cyberweld.com. “Our mobile site lets us reach them where they are doing their work, and when they are most likely to find that they need the products we sell.”

Article from http://www.internetretailer.com/2010/11/18/unbound-commerce-officially-unveil...

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Artbeads.com debuts an m-commerce site for customers getting comfortable with smartphones

“Being a pure-play selling products that are very tactile—beads and jewelry supplies—a large portion of our customer base wants to be able to touch the products. We compensated by having some outstanding photography on our e-commerce site, but we wanted to see if there was one more step we could go,” says Michael Hervieux, chief operating officer. “M-commerce is an inroad for us. A customer can visit a competitor’s bricks-and-mortar store, take a look at products, and then have us on their phone to see how we position those products. Our entire catalog is available on the mobile site, and we focused on search functionality to locate our products very quickly to be able to satisfy that need.”

“Our demographic is a very high percentage of female, stay-at-home, as opposed to full-time employed women. More and more of these women are getting smartphones, they are permeating the market beyond the BlackBerry executives of yesterday,” Hervieux says. “Apple and Android have done a great job to make them desirable devices to everyone. For us it’s a gradual penetration compared to if we were selling a technology product; but the non-professional, non-businessperson is becoming more used to doing things on their phones.”

For complete article, visit http://www.internetretailer.com/2010/11/08/making-jewelry-mobile-phone

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Paul Boisvert of Yahoo Small Business talks with WebProNews about small businesses involved with e-commerce and the big issues they need to be aware with. The big issue is having enough time, he says.

Watch the video at http://live.webpronews.com/yahoo-small-business-on-smb-challenges/

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Speakers at Internet Retailer's first Mobile Commerce Forum leave attendees with tons of take-aways.

The mobile commerce industry came together in one place for the first time last month at the first annual Internet Retailer Mobile Commerce Forum in Chicago, and the consensus view was clear: M-commerce is here to stay, and retailers, travel companies and ticket sellers not yet on board had better get a strategy together today—or risk losing ground to competitors as an increasing number of shoppers go mobile.

Mobile shoppers are expected to spend $119 billion globally on goods and services in 2015, up from $12 billion in 2009, reported keynote speaker Will Pinnell, director of mobile commerce for Sabre Holdings, parent of online travel company Travelocity. Consumers want to be able to shop via their phones, and that means companies need to develop a mobile strategy now, he said.

"Shopping is shifting," Pinnell said. "Direct mail programs and events aren't working as well as they used to and shoppers are becoming increasingly comfortable purchasing anything on their mobile phone. The next and current generation of shoppers will expect it."

For more info, visit https://www.internetretailer.com/2010/11/01/early-learnings

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Here is the link to digital version:

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/verticalweb/201010_InternetRetailer/#/0

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The running shoes retailer chose a vendor that could leverage its existing e-commerce technology.

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