Is Having a Mobile Ecommerce Platform Necessary for Today’s Cross-Channel Luxury Shopper?


Is Having a Mobile Ecommerce Platform Necessary for Today’s Cross-Channel Luxury Shopper?

“If you don’t have a mobile strategy, you don’t have a future strategy,” said Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman of Google.

While luxury retailers have been slow to assimilate their target market’s browsing and purchasing habits, The Luxury Retailer’s Guide to Agile Commerce has determined that this demographic has higher expectations for the brand mobile experience than other online shoppers.

Citing data from England’s Forrester Research, Luxury Daily reports: “Luxury marketers should explore ways to cross research and purchase channels in a manner that fulfills the needs of the savvy luxury shopper, both online and universally.”

New findings have determined that luxury shoppers are:

-Using multiple devices during the online and offline shopping experience;

-Younger than the average online shopper;

-More likely to share personal content and commentary via social media than the average online adult;

-Have higher expectations for the mobile shopping experience.

Proactive marketers who combine commerce and great content while intersecting all channels will be most relevant to these savvy shoppers.

Statistics also show that:

-17% of luxury online shoppers have visited a retailer’s social media page in the past three months.

-On the mobile channel, 59 % of U.S. luxury online shoppers have made a purchase via a mobile site or application in comparison to 12 percent of all smartphone users.

-51% of luxury shoppers expect optimized, agile sites incorporating digital, mobile and social media to assist in their shopping experience, and expect the retailer to have a mobile website.

-49% of luxury shoppers expect the retailer to have a mobile app, 43% expect to be able to purchase products/services on a retailer’s mobile website/app, and 35% expect to find the same assortment of products/services on a retailer’s mobile site/app as its desktop site.

-U.S. luxury online shoppers who use a tablet are much more likely to use the device to make offline purchasing decisions. Twenty-six percent of these shoppers own a tablet, whereas 16 percent of U.S. Web users do.

Luxury retailers including Oscar de la Renta, Gucci and Burberry have pioneered smart multi-channel programs. Oscar de la Renta has incorporated social sharing; Gucci connects mobile and physical shopping through mobile Point of Sale (POS) technology; and Burberry has connected its digital and physical channels with iPad apps that access customer purchase history and preferences.

Overall, however, luxury retailers haven’t reached the level of sophistication of their mainstream competitors, creating great opportunity to expand on the currently limited cross-channel solutions in the luxury sector to appeal to that demographic’s technologically advanced shopping habits.

Luxury Daily also explores key factors to consider in mobile strategy goals here.

Sintel Systems is a quality provider of Point of Sale systems across retail and service industries, including frozen yogurt shops, pizzerias, sushi restaurants, cafés, retail stores and a myriad of other tailored systems.

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Questions or Comments: Contact us 855-POS-SALES www.SintelSystems.com

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