Optimization & Cohesiveness Across Devices
Everyone on the DirectIQ team agrees, apps make the world a much better place – mostly because of their ease of use and design. When we took a poll at our offices, 100% of us agreed that we’re more likely to buy a product on a retailer’s app than we are on their respective websites when we access them on our smartphones. Plus, we all agreed that we have an expectation that when we access websites on various devices, we expect them all to have a similar feel and user experience…. As an aside, 100% of us also agreed that company happy hours should happen each and every day of the week 🙂
That said, a new study conducted by Mobiquity, a mobile computing professional services firm that helps clients design and develop mobile solutions, found that over half of their polled shoppers can’t stand how long it takes for websites to load on their mobile devices. Their research also showed that using loyalty rewards, and paying through a mobile device are also extremely difficult processes for them. In fact, in another poll by Research Now, retailers had a C-minus grade for their mobile user experience. Are you starting to see a trend here? … Retailers are not taking advantage of mobile, and shoppers are not satisfied. But how does this connect to email marketing, you ask?
As many as 39% of consumers feel that websites and mobile apps should have the same feel and look across the web and on various devices – and even in their stores. Surprisingly, only 22% of those in the Research Now study claimed to be satisfied with the cross-channel integrations offered by retailers. That’s quite a shocking number considering how much money could be lost just due to this lack of mobile optimization. In other words, your email marketing campaigns can dramatically improve when they look and feel like your website – not to mention, when you link back to your website in a campaign, it pays (quite literally) to the jump from an email to a website as seamless as possible. This is incredibly important as each year, the number of people that access their emails and make purchases on their mobile devices increases. This is more than proven by Black Friday sales – as purchases on mobile increased from 22.5% last year, to 30.3% on mobile this year. These numbers can hardly be ignored, and you should certainly check out our all you need to know about consumers and e-commerce guide for more details on how you can make the most of Christmas shoppers this holiday season!Â
Eric Karofsky, Mobiquity retail solutions head, echoes these concerns and has some other great points regarding the advances that can be used in mobile that can help you make the most of a customer’s experience with your store. He believes that ?It’s all about context and understanding the users? needs. They’re (retailers) missing a huge opportunity. If someone is shopping on a PC, it’s hard to know what she’s looking for. But if I?m standing inside a store with my phone in my hand checking out a new television set, you can Geo-locate me and you have a pretty good chance of knowing what I?m shopping for and how to approach me. We mention this in our stats to help you advertise correctly for the holidays guide, as people expect location specific deals – and if they don?t get them, it can certainly negatively affect sales. In other words, though email marketing is an extremely effective tool, all of you email marketers must make sure that all of your bases are covered, as in doing so, you  can maintain the highest ROI possible and stay ahead of the game, and your competitors.
Baris is the founder of DirectIQ with over 20 years of experience in email marketing campaigns. Baris is an expert in all aspects of email marketing, and he created DirectIQ as an alternative to mass marketing tools like Mailchimp because he knows how to deliver individualized experience en masse to niches like hotel and real estate marketing, where a personal touch means everything.
