During a Tuesday webinar on mobile and tablet commerce, Sucharita Mulpuru, vice president, principal analyst at Forrester Research, outlined “6 Ways to Reach Tablet Shoppers to Drive ROI.”
1: Get the basics right: Optimize your content for mobile browsers and make sure it’s visible.
2: Think about apps; we’re in an app world now: A record 1.2 billion apps were downloaded during the last week of 2011. “It’s growing and doesn’t appear to be going away,” Mulupuru says.
Apps have compelling features with a rich user interface. They can leverage the ability to use cameras or barcode scanners; leverage the ability to test and learn; and leverage features like cameras or barcode scanners.
3: Rich retail apps have promise if they’re engaging. Mulpuru gave an example of a popular app that shows different interior designers uploading photographs.
4: Third-party development is an option where apps can be downloaded.
5: Tablets are much more than web surfing devices; tablets open up a new set of possibilities.
6: You are your best advocate given the poor search in app stores. “We don’t have a great solution for the app store at this point in time,” Mulpuru says.
Mulpuru says many people are purchasing tablets now instead of personal computers. “Tablets cannibalize desktops more than phones,” Mulpuru says. “We’re so early in the tablet commerce arena. It’s unmolded clay yet to be shaped.”
Mulpuru says retailers have, for the most part, made “extremely small investments” in tablet or mobile experiences. She sees metrics for mobile and tablet commerce changing in the next two years as more companies test various customer engagement components.
Jim Tierney ([email protected]) is a senior writer for Multichannel Merchant. You can connect with him on Twitter (TierneyMCM) and LinkedIn, or call him at 203-358-4265.