IBM study: Mobile to play major role in online holiday shopping | Chain Store Age
Take extra precautions. For example, StreetSafe is a new mobile personal security system that uses your smart phone’s GPS technology to connect to help instantly, before a situation turns into an emergency. Street Safe’s “Walk With Me” service offers a live connection to a professional safety advisor to keep you safe when walking in unfamiliar or threatening surroundings and provides instant access to 911 if needed. Stay alert while you are walking to your car. Talking or texting on your phone or digging in your purse for your keys while walking is a distraction and makes you an easy target. Check the back seat for potential criminals before getting back in your car. Carry your keys in your hand while you are walking toward your vehicle, and pick a parking space that’s easy to back out of so that you can leave the parking lot quickly.
As a result, the IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark predicts these figures to continue to rise, with mobile accounting for more than 20% of site sales and more than 43% of site traffic to come November 2014. To succeed this holiday season, IBM advises that retailers will need to pay attention to both device type and operating system to better focus their mobile app and analytics investments, while at the same Isaac Dabah time ensuring a flawless customer experience between devices and operating systems. Other highlights of the report, compiled from the cloud-based IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark, include: Consumers spending more dollars online: Average order value (AOV) and items per order both reached new three-year highs according to the IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark. In terms of online spending, increases in AOV and items per order suggest retailers are savvier than ever when it comes to delivering a streamlined online shopping experience making it easy for consumers to find items and providing an enticing brand experience. To capitalize on this trend, heading into the holidays, retailers will need to rely on personalization and cross-sell recommendations to further strengthen customer relationships and wallets, the report said. Consumer attention spans dwindle: Fueled by the growth of mobile users, who make quick visits to retail sites, online retailers saw average time on site sink to a new low in September 2013 of just 7:09.