3 predictions for mobile commerce in 2013
2012 was Poq’s first full year as a company, and it was action-packed. We launched new apps, presented on stage with Ebay and Paypal, interviewed online fashion consumers, listened to industry leading lights, and above all, worked on improving our products.
And 2013 is set to be another epic year. We’ve got three predictions for the year ahead in mcommerce. And we’re putting our money where our mouth is, with planned improvements to our app platform that match all of our predictions. And here they are… (drumroll please):
Prediction no 1: Editorial meets commerce meets mobile
Mixing shopping and editorial isn’t revolutionary, but 2013 will see a huge increase on mobile. Take a look at the ASOS Fashion Up app for a great example. Video content is also going to be big this year, and is a whole new way to showcase products.
At Poq we think that firstly a retail app needs to be quick and easy to use, but once that’s in place editorial content can give you an added edge. In interviews we conducted last year, many consumers mentioned that they enjoyed editorial features in shopping apps, as a way to dig deeper into the brand.
Adding content can also combat the lower conversion rate on phones compared to desktop and tablet. Editorial layers make your app more engaging and shoppable.
The only problem, as ever, is the resources needed to create and maintain all this content. One way around this is crowd-sourcing from social media.
What Poq are planning
We want to make it easy for you to add in user-sourced editorial content to your apps. We’re creating technology that enables you to create a gallery of tagged photos on our apps, and investigating more ways of linking with social media. We’re also adding video capability to showcase product videos and tutorials – particularly important for beauty brands.
Prediction 2: The rise and rise of tablets
2012 saw the launch of a myriad tablets, including the new iPad and iPad mini. Lots of people unwrapped a brand new tablet on Christmas Day, and now they want to shop through them.
Tablets have unique strengths. They provide a lighter, less obtrusive browsing experience than a laptop, but they have a much bigger, crisper screen than a smartphone. Vital when it comes to viewing fashion products. Because of their size and touch-screen navigation, tablets are also great for that magazine style page-flipping experience.
We’re not alone in thinking this. Debenhams say that an iPad customer is worth twice as much as a regular ecommerce customer. And Fab.com does so well on tablets that the CEO has pondered the plausibility of buying every customer an iPad with the Fab app preloaded!
What Poq are planning
We already format our standard apps for iPad, but this year we’re planning something special – an iPad catalogue app platform. This would enable any retail brand to upload a PDF or lookbook and make it clickable, swipeable, and shoppable. We also want to include this capability inside our standard apps and mobile websites.
Prediction 3: Joined-up thinking – better integration for retailers
Maybe you’re sick of hearing that overused buzzword ‘multi-channel’. But whatever you call it, retailers are selling in more and more places. And those places need to link seamlessly and behave the same way. After all, from the customer’s point of view, it’s all one brand.
Multi-channel retail is a consumer friendly development – from our interviews with shoppers, we know that customers love browsing products in multiple places before deciding to buy. People often window shop on their phones before a purchase is made in-store or on the desktop site (and the other way round too!)
We predict that in 2013 retailers will demand joined-up thinking. They’ll need all their online outlets to play well together, and they’ll need more stats so they can analyse what works and what doesn’t.
What Poq are planning
We’ll be adding more extensive analytics to our apps so you can get all that in-depth data you crave. We’re also introducing new ways to keep the products on your website in sync with the same products on our apps. This makes life much easier – no need to update products in two separate places. Integration is a beautiful thing.
