AARC President Ron Kurtz suggests that this could be because shoppers prefer to make high-value purchases in a more leisurely and comfortable way, and for this a larger screen is better.  He also suggests that mobile is better for spontaneous purchases or research. Kurtz made no comment on the gender discrepancy.

This has interesting implications for anyone in the high-end retail business: while mobile is clearly important, it may be necessary to crosslink it with a desktop site using a saved shopping cart, wish list or other delayed decision feature in order to enable the customer to complete the transaction on a different device.

Marc Barach, chief strategy and marketing officer at Jumio, commented that mobile retailers need to redesign their sites to allow for small screens and touchscreen keyboards.

However, these figures shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. On mainstream e-commerce sites, checkout abandonment rates vary between 60% and 90%. Perhaps it’s not the mobile element that’s at fault – it’s the entire way we do online checkouts.

Source: http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/66pc-abandon-mcommerce-purchases-because-of-issues-at-checkout

In 2013, mobile commerce will reach $39 billion, up more than 50% over last year.

In 2013, 15% of sales will take place on mobile devices.

By 2017, 25% of sales will take place on mobile devices.

The massive growth in smartphones and tablets is driving more and more people to use mobile for everything they do. Businesses of all kinds, and especially those in sales, need to make sure they’re handling mobile well. Are you mobile-ready?

Source: http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Smartphones-Tablets-Drive-Faster-Growth-Ecommerce-Sales/1009835

In business, we all need to be smart about mobile. We need to ensure that we’re providing mobile users with everything they demand. Software developers must make sure that everything works via a platform-agnostic browser so that users can access whatever they need on any device, any time, any place, or they need to provide platform-specific apps that cater for tablets and smartphones. Mobile support can be a dealbreaker for both B2B and B2C companies these days. If the customer can’t use your service on their preferred mobile device, they won’t use it all.

Most importantly, anyone who’s selling anything needs to ensure that they address the needs of mobile users. This week, I’ll be looking at some of the important facts and figures that will help you determine your mobile strategy.

• No doubt “digital” is one of the buzzwords mentioned above, but it’s for good reason. It seems that year after year new digital tools and applications are released, each offering a more personal way of engaging customers than the last; make the most of them!
• While there is no doubting the value of digital platforms in customer engagement, any medium is only as effective as the campaign behind it. To create truly effective engagements, don’t underestimate the value of creativity.
• It has long been known that social media is a goldmine when it comes to meaningful customer engagement. Despite that, the best way to utilize the medium hasn’t been established; according to some, social media as a customer engagement tool has finally reached maturity.
• Social media’s value isn’t just from generating customer engagement from “nothing.” Instead of seeing social media as a tool for sudo-cold calling, consider it as an extension of a larger multi-channel customer experience.
• There are a handful of mainstream social media platforms for any resourceful business to exploit, but one of the most valuable is undoubtedly Twitter. Using those 140 characters wisely can give a great bang for the buck!
• To wrap things up we talk more about social media. The book is still being written on the best way to utilize the medium for customer engagement, but its value can’t be disputed.

Social media has redefined the “norms” of interpersonal relationships for an entire generation. Over the past few years though, businesses have come to realize that the inherent personal and impersonal aspects of social media has made it a perfect vehicle for innovative customer engagement. Like any new technology though, the learning curve has been steep in creating meaningful engagements, and the proverbial book on the subject has not yet been written.

Despite the unknowns though, digital tools are without a doubt some of the best ways to connect with customers. Nothing can replace quality human-to-human interaction, but depending on the specific business, person-to-person contact with customers can be expensive at best, and often impossible to manage and maintain at a quality level.

In simple terms, gamification involves making everyday consumer interactions feel more like a game than a chore. The concept of gamification means driving users to engage with your business, product, or service through the use of lighthearted games and fun tasks. It is an excellent way to keep users coming back for more between purchases, and has shown an amazing ability to drive loyalty.

How and Why Gamification Works

Gamification works by rewarding users for taking an action or engaging in a marketing campaign. The most commonly purchased form of loyalty program is the “buy “x” of this product, get one free” type of program. These programs work by allowing consumers to get one free product for however many specific products they buy; often, there are punch cards associated with these programs to help members keep track of their current position within the program. While punch cards and volume level purchasing benefits can be effective, gamified loyalty programs can boost memberships and loyal followers even more. Standard loyalty programs lack the ability to spur on virality, something that has become a crucial point in marketing with the importance of social media increasing. When you combine this with the ability to use entirely new, more exciting platforms to deliver gamified loyalty programs, you have a winning combination. These strategies have a higher level of engagement, increase involvement over a longer length of time, and draw in more members by referral.

Challenges

Most people love a challenge, whether it is in their daily lives or within their loyalty programs. The key with incorporating gamified loyalty program challenges is to ensure that the challenges are of a suitable level. Making challenges too difficult will result in your members losing interest before they ever attain a goal. Making challenges too easy will have the same effect; additionally, it will water down the value of the prizes handed out, whether the prizes are digital or physical.

Points and levels:

Points and levels serve a number of purposes within gamified loyalty programs. At their most basic, they serve as a way for members to track their own progress. They can also motivate members to seek out higher and higher levels of attainment, especially if prizes become better at these higher levels. Point systems can be simple, with just a single number assigned to each level, or they can be more complex, made up of levels comprised of further sublevels.

Appointments

Assigning benefits to those who set appointments or even those who take an action at a specific point in time can be an excellent way to drive sales on your own schedule. This type of benefit works especially well for drawing in new memberships. Assigning a reward for those who sign up or purchase an item by a certain date is an excellent way to use this type of benefit within a loyalty program.

Progress

Showing progress in a way that is engaging and user-friendly is extremely important. Often, this is best done in a visual way. It can be useful to show both where the user currently sits, as well as how far they have to go before attaining the next level.

Countdowns

Countdowns are becoming a frequent part of gamified loyalty programs, and for good reason. Countdowns can spur on users who have otherwise lost interest, as well as those who simply need more of a push to take action. A good deal always seems better when there is a countdown attached; human nature makes us want to join in and receive the same benefits as our peers. We often feel that if we miss out we are not, “part of the group,” and countdowns drive home that desire to be an accepted community member.

Sharing the Benefits and Virality

Virality can spurn programs into success, and designing programs for virality is important. Sharing benefits are usually done in such a way that the member receives benefits for sharing the loyalty program with their friends. Sometimes, this is tied into a contest; one common way this is done is to allow members one entry into a contest to win a prize for every new person they sign up. This tends to be an extremely affordable way to bring in new members, because there is no action needed on the part of the company providing the program other than the benefit. This type of sharing tends to have a trickle-down effect; for every person who shares a well-developed program with a friend, that person is likely to pass the program on to several friends of their own. This web is what makes achieving virality such an important strategy to attain.

Leaderboards

Leaderboards allow members to compete directly with each other for either prizes or bragging rights. This is commonly seen in multiplayer online games, but the concept ports over to loyalty programs very well. For best results, leaderboards should be live or real time, or at least make regular updates. Leaderboards can also be woven into a competition for top prizes; for example, consider making a prize that is only assignable to a top level, or a top level within each category. Users who achieve the highest amount of points thus win the prize; then, assign a time frame for the competition, and allow users to compete up until this point.

VIP lines

Everyone likes to feel important and like they are at the top of their game. Humans are naturally competitive, and even if there is no particular prize other than bragging rights assigned to your VIP lines, your membership will still work to achieve VIP status. In the eyes of most consumers, “VIP” status means they are special and valued in the eyes of the company or business providing the loyalty program. Pairing better prizes or rewards with VIP status can push this concept even further.

Public Commendations

Commending people publicly for what they achieve is also an excellent way to make your members feel that they are dealing with real people rather than a company. That personalized feeling is proving to be more important than ever due to the impact of social media. Consumers don’t want to feel like just another number or client, and they want companies to work for their loyalty more than ever. The more personalized you can make these messages and commendations, the better. However, even just making a public show of your top achievers by posting their names and achievements will have a great deal of benefit.

Preventing Churn

Churn is an issue with many areas of business. Naturally, numbers tend to wax and wane in any loyalty program, but there are methods to reduce this turnover that can be implemented in gamified programs. Forcing users to complete regular tasks to prevent loss of benefits, or implementing last minute actions can be an excellent way to spur users on. Those using gamified system should consider that as soon as a user moves on to a task other than the loyalty program, they begin to lose interest. This is why regular notifications and reminders of actions that must be taken are necessary.

Before You Start a Gamified Loyalty Program

There are a few things to consider before you start preparing a gamified loyalty program. At a basic level, you must be sure that your program is fun and engaging. Consider the following questions before starting your loyalty program:

• Is your program fun, and engaging?

○        You can offer all the benefits in the world, but if your program tasks or actions are boring and lack a high level of engagement, you will lose members quickly. Consider your target market and what drives them to seek out products or services like yours. This will offer clues as to how you can properly engage these members.

• Have you tested the program out on associates or those that are only indirectly associated with your business?

○        Beta testing any loyalty program is important; technical issues can be the downfall of a good loyalty program. Consider letting in a small advance group of members in the name of beta testing; offer a reward to these members for testing the program and giving feedback on it.

• What is the goal of your program?

○        Be sure that you have a clear goal before beginning your program. Is your goal to add more loyal clients or customers, or is it to drive purchases of a specific product? Perhaps the goal of your program is simply to make your company appear to be more friendly and personable. Whatever your goal is, you should be sure it is clear from day one.

• Who do you want to attract?

The simplest answer to this is that you want to attract your target market. However, the answer is usually a bit more complex than this. Within any target market, certain groups of consumers are more valuable than others. For example, if you are selling high end jewelery, those with disposable income and an interest in diamonds would be more valuable to you than those who are simply looking for engagement rings. The former is more likely to become a repeat client than the latter.

Source: http://www.cmswire.com/cms/customer-experience/turning-twitter-experiences-into-meaningful-customer-engagement-020741.php

Source: http://www.destinationcrm.com/Articles/CRM-News/Daily-News/Social-Media-Amplifies-the-Customer-Experience-89402.aspx

Source: http://www.hispanicbusiness.com/2013/4/30/social_media_platform_for_customer_engagement.htm