Today I had the opportunity to listen in on the Webinar Happy Holidays or Not: Mobile Lessons Learned, and Best Practice for 2010.

The webinar was interesting and provided some good facts about how the mobile phone assisted the 2009 holiday shopping season.  It was truly a global trend according to e-Rewards and TNS international, who reported that over 50% of Internet users worldwide used their mobile phone to support shopping in some capacity.

Some of the trends that have become clear are that mobile shopping will not be the complete solution.  It is an enabler of many different activities involved in the overall shopping and purchasing experience. 

Of the users that utilized their mobile phone for a least one shopping related activity, Asia-Pacific shoppers lead the world by a comfortable margin (78%), followed by Latin America (62.4%), Europe (49.4%), and North America (45.1%)

The top mobile shopping activities were:

• Called to ask someone about a product they might purchase
• Texted to ask someone about a product they might purchase
• Sent a picture of a product they might purchase
• Used mobile phone to access Internet to look at product reviews or other product information
• Used mobile phone to access Internet to compare prices
• Used mobile phone to access Internet to get coupons or special offers while shopping
• Made an Internet purchase directly on the mobile phone
  

 

Although it may be too early to say that 2009 was the tipping point for mobile shopping and the related activities, it is clear the mobile phone will continue to enhance and enable shopping in the coming years.

According to a coordinated “store systems study” by RIS and IHL group, retailers in North America in the next 12 months will be rapidly offering additional mobile shopping information. Listed below, in order of priority, retailers will be adding the following mobile technology to enable shopping:

• Product Information
• Coupons
• Mobile Ordering
• Stock Check
• Price Comparison
• Payments

 

All of this data leads to the establishment of best practices by retailers eager to offer their customers mobility in shopping in 2010.  The best bet for retailers appears to be to pick a simple and straight forward way to help enable customers to utilize their mobile device when shopping, rather than attempt to build and end-to-end mobile shopping solution.

Consumers are not going to use their mobile phones to complete 100% of their purchases, but retailers who are able to provide customers with mobile enablement along the way will generally complete more purchases. 

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Name: Kent McNeil Title: Principal Company: DonRiver View Kent McNeil's Blog