Comment: The need for speed and the rise of mobile commerce

According to data from the IMRG Capgemini Quarterly Benchmarketing, 2012 was the year that “mobile truly arrived” as sales using mobile devices hit £7.5 billion.

This indicates that just being online is no longer enough. E-tailer brands must differentiate through customer experience in order to build loyalty and encourage conversions. Mobile is an absolutely critical aspect of this.  

In order to stay ahead of the game, and more importantly the competition, e-tailers must evolve towards a multichannel shopping experience as performance on mobile devices is becoming more crucial. According to research conducted by Strangeloop four out of five smartphone users shop on their mobile device, making this channel more important than ever for retailers. In fact, mobile is becoming an increasingly important source of revenue as smartphone and tablet penetration increases.

However, a lot more needs to be done to improve the customer experience on mobile. Research by Strangeloop has also shown that on average a retail website takes 11 seconds to load. This is far longer than consumers are likely to wait, if three seconds is their limit on a website, they are likely to show less patience with a mobile.   

Although the mobile experience will be supported by the increasing 4G network build-outs, retailers must invest in their own backhaul services and mobile Content Delivery Networks (CDN) to provide faster content loading on handheld devices. For the consumer this will mean better streaming of rich content, faster payment transactions – and, for retailers, a more loyal user base.

A CDN can speed up mobile page load times by up to 70% and is effectively a network of powerful servers which cache content in multiple locations around the world.

The future growth of mobile means retailers’ IT divisions must invest in optimising webpages for such devices, ensuring content is delivered quickly, whether a user is on a website or using a mobile app. Mobile will then not only be an extension of online revenues, but also a mechanism for increasing brand loyalty.   

Mobile is the next big battleground for e-tailers. Over time, speed on mobile will become just as important as it is now on websites.

As the old retail mantra goes, the customer is always right. Whereas this used to mean making sure your shop staff were polite and gave good service, it now means delivering the kind of online experience that customers demand – rich, engaging and fast. For e-tailers, that means optimising your online presence to ensure a faster and more seamless experience.

Derek Gough, Senior Director of Media and Internet, Level 3 Communications

Gough will be speaking about mobile optimisation at Retail Week Live 2013 next week.