Rich and seamless mobile shopping experiences drive mobile purchases: survey

A survey, reviewing how consumers respond to a bad shopping experience on their Internet-connected mobile device, has revealed that 62 percent abandon the site on their mobile device and return to the site at a later date using a computer.

According to Limelight Networks Research’s survey, 21 percent complete their research and/or purchase using their mobile device but will never return to the site in the future if they can avoid it. Also, 18 percent abandon the site on their mobile device and seek alternative brands using their mobile device.

Overall, the company highlighted that consumers are unwilling to suffer less than optimal mobile shopping experiences, with 80 percent reporting that they will instantly abandon a bad experience.

Of the 520 respondents who completed the survey, 83 percent have researched and purchased a product on a shopping site using their Internet-connected mobile device. And 17 percent have simply researched products on a shopping site using their Internet-connected mobile device.

The survey indicated that mobile shopping expectations mirror expectations for the desktop — respondents want speedy experiences, rich media like product videos, and easy-to-use sites.

Expectations

Survey respondents ranked the importance of mobile shopping features to making the experience of researching and/or purchasing products on their Internet-connected mobile device a good one:

• 88 percent ranked the time it takes for the site to load or appear on the screen as extremely important or important
• 88 percent ranked providing detailed product images on the site (for example, "zoom in" product photography or product videos) as extremely important or important
• 82 percent ranked mobile site optimization, or how the site appropriately fits the screen (for example, no side-to-side scrolling), as extremely important or important

“Consumers do not want to wait — they want to immediately begin shopping on their mobile devices, making the time it takes to begin viewing, searching, and clicking on a site absolutely critical,” said Jonathan Cobb, Mobility Solutions, Limelight Networks.

Equally important to speed is the availability of rich product imagery, which provides the detailed information that consumers need when purchasing on their phones or researching the products they will buy in store or on the computer.

Travel Industry

The travel industry, too, acknowledges that as smartphone adoption grows, consumers expect a faultless experience across all online channels, including mobile.

“We find that the expectations and demands of smartphone customers are significantly higher than website visitors. With the dynamic of the App Store and the user-review feedback loop, it's imperative to deliver a stellar customer experience, otherwise one can end up in a deep hole of negative app reviews,” says Sam Shank, CEO of mobile hotel bookings specialist Hoteltonight.com.

Building on mobile is a far greater challenge than that of any other channel or platform because one only has the smallest amount of time to surprise and delight customers as soon as they glance at their phones, says Dave Ambrose, Business Development Manager, Mobile for Travelzoo.