M-commerce leads to incremental growth

Mobile is a “great channel” to acquire new business, according to Debenham’s head of digital development Harriet Williams.

Speaking at MediaTel Group’s invite-only Retail and Media event held in association with O2 Media at the Haymarket Hotel yesterday, Williams said that in her experience the majority of growth from m-commerce is incremental. “It is a great channel to attract new customers and increase the frequency of existing customers”, she said whilst also revealing that the Debenhams app sees its usage peak out of hours at 10pm.

Shaun Gregory, managing director at O2 Media, said retailers are using mobile to increase basket size, build loyalty and generate feedback – “it goes beyond money.”

The panel agreed that consumer expectation will drive investment in m-commerce sites and apps, with Gregory pointing out that half of UK consumers are already transacting on their mobile.

Nick White, head of e-commerce at Waitrose, talked of the importance of harnessing digital channels to build brands and interact with customers. He believes mobile and online activity also drives more spend in-store. “Mobile is integral to the CRM journey, and there is a huge opportunity but we have to get it right,” he said.

“We’ve analysed 4 years of EPOS data and it shows that m-commerce is additional. The people that engage are higher value and people are incremental – there is a halo effect,” he added.

White portrayed two types of mobile consumers – the “vending machine customer”, which are time-poor Londoners who want to use mobile to add forgotten items to their basket late at night; and “multi-channel customers”, who live outside London and use mobile and online services for content (reading recipes, for example).

However, White touched on the challenges relating to meeting customer expectation and what is realistic from a operational point of view. “It is a very complex process,” he said.

Claire Valoti, head of display & mobile at Mindshare, on the other hand believes that retailers have to find a way to offer an m-commerce experience because customers want and expect the service.

Gregory agreed that “the biggest challenge is that consumer expectation is already there”.

Gregory used Argos as an example of a retailer “getting it right” – driving consumers to the site, encouraging purchase, texting updates on their item, and then getting people to go in-store to collect it. “It is a great customer experience,” he said.