By Rafael Lourenco, EVP,

Now’s the time to make sure your store’s mobile experience and checkout are ready for the holidays. Shopify reports that more than half of all Thanksgiving 2017 e-commerce orders came from mobile devices, but cart abandonment is still higher on mobile than desktop. And CNP fraud attempts tend to increase during the holidays. How can you make your mobile site welcoming to holiday shoppers, but not fraudsters? Three key areas to focus on now are how quickly your store’s pages load, how convenient your mobile checkout process is, and how well your fraud program can handle holiday sales peaks.

Speed up your store’s page load times

In today’s m-commerce environment, simply having a responsive website is no longer enough. Mobile users expect the sites they visit to load almost immediately and they’re quick to abandon sites that don’t. Think with Google found that 40% of shoppers will leave a site that takes more than three seconds to load on their phones and nearly 80% won’t shop again with a store that provides a poor mobile experience. And that’s on a typical day.

On a peak sales day, like Black Friday, even major retailers face site slowdowns or even crashes due to heavy traffic. So now is the time to review your site’s performance, load times, and capacity to not only keep visitors from leaving before your pages load, but also to prevent crashes from sending customers to your competitors. To do this, you’ll need to talk with your IT team and your hosting service about how you can speed up your site and stay online even when a crowd of customers is visiting your store.

To get a quick snapshot of your store’s mobile page speed, Think with Google offers a Speed Scorecard and Impact Calculator. You can use the scorecard to compare your site speed to your competitors and you can see how small improvements in speed can yield more sales.

Reduce mobile cart abandonment

More people turn to their phones when it’s time to buy than ever before, which is why m-commerce is projected to have a CAGR of 24% between now and 2023. Despite this trend, the cart abandonment rate hovers around 75%, in part because many consumers give up when it’s time to check out. Review your shopping and checkout processes now to ensure they’re as friction-free as possible for mobile users.

Mobile shoppers tend to shy away from data entry on small screens whenever possible, and many are accustomed to 1-Click checkout on Amazon, which requires no data entry at all. To keep these shoppers from leaving your site and making their purchases from a competitor with a more convenient checkout process, eliminate customer registration requirements and focus on the must-have data—billing, shipping, and payment information.

Avoid holiday fraudsters and fraud-related bottlenecks

Retail e-commerce fraud is still rising, according to the 2018 LexisNexis True Cost of Fraud report, and the cost of fraud is higher for digital and physical goods sold through the mobile channel than for other retail channels. The report found that each dollar of m-commerce fraud costs digital-goods merchants $3.29 on average, compared to $2.78 per dollar of fraud for physical goods and $2.54 for retailers without a mobile channel.

Meanwhile, false declines ranged from 18% to 28% of orders, with digital goods retailers at the higher end of the range. These rejections of good orders are costly over the long-term, because many falsely declined customers won’t return. These facts are concerning year-round, but holiday sales peaks can make false declines increase if merchants don’t have enough capacity to manually review flagged orders. Overwhelmed retailers may be forced to choose between slower order screening, more completed fraud, or more false positives.

Take a look at your historical fraud rates by channel, including peak-season rates, to see how often your mobile channel has been targeted compared to your other channels. It’s also wise to review your false decline rates to see if they’ve spiked during past holiday seasons. If your mobile channel has been heavily targeted by fraudsters or has had more false declines or completed fraud during previous sales peaks, it’s time to upgrade your fraud prevention program and consider outsourcing your manual fraud review. Having outside experts take on this task during sales peaks can keep order decisions on pace while preventing fraud and reducing false declines.

By making your store easy to use on mobile devices, keeping your checkout process simple, and bolstering your peak-season fraud protection program, you can engage the growing number of consumers who prefer to shop on mobile, during the holidays and beyond. You’ll also be in a better position to fight fraud and keep your good customers year-round.

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Rafael Lourenco is Executive Vice President at ClearSale, a Card-Not-Present fraud prevention operation that protects e-commerce merchants against chargebacks. The company’s flagship product, Total Guaranteed Protection, is an end-to-end outsourced fraud detection solution for online retailers. Follow on twitter at @ClearSaleUS or visit http://clear.sale/

The post How Ready Is Your Mobile Channel for the 2018 Holiday Shopping Season? appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

The final numbers aren’t in yet, but numerous studies indicate that consumers now demand discounts and other promotions (free shipping, for instance) in order for retailers to snag a sale.

In other words, deep discounting might have boosted sales a bit, but they also bite deeply into actual profit.

“Retailers, which typically close their fiscal fourth quarter end of this month or early next month, are expected to see their critical holiday quarter profit decline 1.9 percent on average, according to Retail Metrics, a research firm that tracks Wall Street analysts’ estimates and provides retail industry research and data to institutional investors,” reports eMarketer. “While retail giant Wal-Mart’s expected profit decline (thanks to its technology and other investments) is the key culprit contributing to the sector’s decline, holiday discounting is also partly to blame.”

Retail Metrics president Ken Perkins even suggests that 53 major retailers — about half of the group his firm tracked — are expected to see lower fourth-quarter profit.

“Among the holiday winners, Perkins pointed to retailers including Amazon, beauty products seller Ulta, T.J. Maxx parent TJX, athletic gear retailer Lululemon and electronics chain Best Buy,” notes the report. “Still, he said the firm’s December store checks generally found disappointing in-store traffic and conversions.”

One big takeaway from the holiday? It’s hard to make an actual profit without an omnichannel strategy.

“Almost 70 percent of total holiday related spending occurred in stores with both a physical and online presence as consumers routinely favor shopping with retailers that have a physical location, according to an International Council of Shopping Center’s post-holiday shopper survey,” reports eMarketer. “Among millennials, for instance, the survey showed 77 percent of them said it’s important to buy online from stores that have a physical presence.”

The survey found that 91 percent of holiday shoppers made purchases at physical stores — about the same as holiday 2015.

The post Holiday Sales Healthy, But It Took Discounts, Promotions, and Omnichannel to Get There appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

The study looked at cheer – defined as how happy one was at the time of the survey – and shopping behavior among thousands of in-store holiday shoppers.

For the study – which took place between November 24th and December 7th – nearly 4,000 shoppers were polled via ChargeItSpot kiosks at 22 malls across the country.

The report’s findings indicate that 59% of shoppers said they had “a lot of cheer” this holiday shopping season. Meanwhile, 30% (27%) of shoppers claimed to have “little” to “no cheer.” Fourteen percent had “some cheer.”

“The cheer quotient this holiday season is fairly strong,” said Douglas Baldasare, CEO and founder of ChargeItSpot. “But it could certainly be stronger. It does seem that the numbers are trending upward, however, as the month progresses and we get closer to the holidays.”

To learn more about ChargeItSpot and its study, click here.

The post New Study Shows That 59% of Shoppers Have ‘A Lot of Cheer’ This Holiday Shopping Season appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

The company, a provider of a leading cross-channel, cross-device performance advertising cloud for advertisers and agencies, said smartphone shopping and ad spend grew much faster than other devices, but “did not detract from desktops and tablets, with clicks and spend increasing across all devices.”

An announcement from the company indicates that between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, smartphone clicks grew by 87 percent YoY, about equal with desktop clicks.

“This reflects a dramatic increase compared to 2014, when smartphone clicks accounted for only 28 percent of all clicks,” notes the company.

In fact, those sought-after clicks grew across smartphones, tablets, and desktops, with the large increase in smartphone click share being attributed to growing smartphone adoption.

“Digital marketers are well aware that Cyber Monday is now just as important, if not more so, than Black Friday, and that mobile continues to be big news,” said John McNulty, Vice President of Global Marketing at Marin Software.

“What they should also be aware of is how important it is to target users across all devices,” he added. “Our data clearly indicate that despite the ever increasing importance of mobile as part of the decision making process, desktop and tablet devices aren’t going anywhere any time soon.”

The post Holiday Shopping Weekend Stats: Mobile Clicks Increase, But Not at Expense of Desktop or Tablet Devices appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

The following is a guest contributed post to MMW from Tal Schwartz, CEO of ClickTale.

For online retailers this holiday season, the most wonderful time of the year seems to have been struck by the Grinch. The 2015 holiday shopping season is predicted to be the slowest since 2009, and in order to compensate for an economic forecast so frightful, many retailers are doing something not at all delightful: announcing that they will not be offering the deep discounts so many online shoppers expect in the run up to Christmas and New Year’s.

As CEO of ClickTale, I spend a lot of time coaching some of the world’s top online enterprises on how to optimize their websites for exactly this kind of downturn. The key to end-of-year success for online retailers lies not only in proper planning, but also in a sharp, super-focused strategy that takes into account consumer psychology. To make this holiday season as sweet as possible, our in-house Web Psychologist, Dr. Liraz Margalit, suggests taking these key tips into account:

Q: Which types of products should be emphasized on e-commerce sites this shopping season?

A: When consumers are feeling uncertain, they tend toward rational rather than emotional decision-making. The question the uncertain shopper asks about a purchase is not “How does this make me feel?” but rather “Is it worth it?”

Thus, consumers this holiday season can be expected to gravitate toward products that are perceived as having long term value. Trendy products that could be considered frivolous or just “nice to have” will be less likely to appeal than products positioned as durable, long-lasting investments.

Retailers need to push “Is it worth it?” products to the top of their offerings, and adapt existing product descriptions to stress long-term value rather than short-term “feel good” benefits.

Q: How can online retailers mitigate consumer disappointment over shrinking discounts?

Major retailers will be offering more items at full price, and minimizing promotions this holiday season. At the same time, consumers collectively expect the deep discounts of previous holiday seasons – which are simply not viable this year – and will be disappointed when they don’t find them.

How can retailers mitigate consumer disappointment over shrinking discounts? A good start would be to de-emphasize price by highlighting product suitability. 

Today’s advanced personalization options can take into account consumer mindset and not just past behavior. This can help ensure that the “wow” factor of a highly suitable product presented to the right consumer at the right time will trump the expectation of a deep discount.

Q: How can companies generate the feeling of urgency that motivates online consumers to impulse shop?

“Urgency” refers to the feeling that taking action in a given situation is so crucial that the natural tendency to put off decision-making is secondary. Especially in a time of low consumer confidence, retailers should aim to create the urgency that eliminates the impulse to stop and over-consider a purchase.

How can this happen? Retailers should not hesitate to use loss aversion as a motivator to create urgency. In other words, when making decisions, people will typically exhibit greater sensitivity to the feeling of losing something rather than the feeling of gaining something. This can be based on limited product availability (“Only 2 left at the price, grab yours now!”) or time limitation (“This price available only for the next 30 minutes!”).

Q: What cues can online retailers send customers to help boost sales?

Our basic psychological need for group belonging is compounded in times of uncertainty. When people lack confidence, they seek approval for their actions. Consumers are no different.

This holiday season, retailers need to reinforce group thinking by highlighting product popularity, and bringing consumer reviews or even just “likes” to the forefront. Retailers need to make customers feel that they’re in good company when they buy a given product.

Q: Is there still hope for the 2015 holiday shopping season?

Absolutely – all is not lost! The finality associated with the end of an old year and the beginning of a new one is a powerful motivator, especially when combined with the collective holiday shopping experience.

In other words, people will be buying, and buying a lot. The question is: will they be buying from you?

Retailers that effectively win over consumer hearts and minds with smarter personalization, more effective creation of urgency and collective experience, and more sophisticated product framing will be the winners this holiday season.

The post Slowest Holiday Shopping Season In Years: What Are Retailers To Do? appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

It’s also either cool or creepy, depending upon one’s point of view.

It’s “a new way for shoppers to understand the reasons behind the top trends of the holiday season and also predict the hottest products before they sell out,” explained IBM in a news release.

The app is now available as a free download in the Apple App Store.

What does the app do?

Here’s what IBM says:

“The IBM Watson Trend app distills the sentiment of tens of millions of online conversations by scouring 10,000 sources across social media sites, blogs, forums, comments, ratings and reviews. Unlike other apps or lists that provide a static ranking of “hot” products, the Watson app reveals how consumers feel about the products they are considering or have purchased.”

According to IBM, the app uncovers consumer preferences to pinpoint patterns and trends to reveal why people are choosing certain products or brands.

It also employs the latest in predictive analytics to forecast if a particular trend is a fleeting fad or will continue to remain strong. That could be huge for parents, grandparents, and others deciding what gifts to buy.

“Users can view the top 100 trending products and stories behind them across three categories — consumer electronics, toys, and health and fitness,” notes IBM.

IBM has already divulged some details on the current top trends (click on the link for more info).

It’s pretty heady stuff. That’s because the Watson Trend App uses a combination of API capabilities from IBM’s open Watson Developer platform including Sentiment Analysis, Keyword Extraction, Concept Tagging and Taxonomy Classification.

We’ve come a long ways when it’s not just data on past purchases or items sitting in digital shopping carts. IBM is plumbing the depths of something as innovative as “sentiment analysis.”

For more information or to download the IBM Watson Trend App, go to www.ibmwatsontrend.com

And this YouTube video gives you the basic lay of the land. Check it out here.

The post Reading Our Minds: IBM’s New ‘Watson Trend App’ Predicts Hot Products for Holiday Season appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

Amazon.com has just announced holiday deals start already started last Friday, November 20.

And, get this — new deals are being added as often as every five minutes for eight straight days at www.amazon.com/blackfriday.

Customers will have access to 10 coveted Deals of the Day starting at midnight on Thanksgiving, and up to 10 more on Black Friday.

“Customers can also shop limited-time Lightning Deals on thousands of sought-after products per day throughout the eight days of deals. Plus, Prime members will get 30-minutes early access to the majority of these Lightning Deals,” Amazon says.

Want to know more? Click here.

The post Ready for Black Friday? Amazon Begins Touting Holidays Shopping Deals appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

Consider the results of a recent RhythmOne holiday-focused survey, which shows that a majority (71.5 percent) of holiday shoppers are “mobile holiday shoppers” and will use a mobile device to go online and/or use an app to shop or research holiday products and gifts.

RhythmOne is a technology-enabled media company that connects audiences with brands through premium content across devices. This year’s survey is the firm’s 11th annual holiday season commerce study.

“Among mobile holiday shoppers, 40.9 percent will use a smartphone only, 40.0 percent will use both a smartphone and a tablet, and 19.1 percent will use a tablet only to research/shop for holiday products and gifts,” the report authors explain. “Of note, three in five (60.4 percent) mobile holiday shoppers aged 18-34 years will exclusively use a smartphone as their mobile holiday shopping device.”

The company’s 11 consecutive seasons of surveying shows not only that mobile is now huge in the path to purchase, but that marketers should take advantage of that knowledge.

Of note is the fact that mobile is increasingly used in-store as well. About half of holiday shoppers will use their mobile devices while in a physical store location to assist in the shopping process (checking competitor prices is the most common in-store mobile activity).

“In our past holiday consumer studies, we documented the steady rise in the number of consumers turning to mobile devices to help with their holiday shopping,” said Dan Slivjanovski, CMO at RhythmOne.

“Today we can unequivocally say that we are beyond the tipping point and mobile shopping — whether window shopping or making a purchase — is as much a part of the holiday season as Black Friday deals,” he added. “For brands and retailers, this means mobile experiences from advertising and content distribution to native apps and in-store mobile experiences have to be nurtured.”

The post Annual RhythmOne Holiday Season Study Points to Increased Mobile Shopping, Research appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

The company has just announced the holiday preparedness plans of its Indaba Group subsidiary.

To meet the increased holiday demand, Indaba Group will provide its online merchant customers with “enhanced hosting, logistics, mobile, marketing and other critical online services.”

Black Friday marks the beginning a major cultural event in the American economy. Beginning as early as Thursday evening on the Thanksgiving holiday and spanning the entire weekend through to what has been known as cyber Monday, shoppers in dramatically increasing numbers are staying home to avoid crowds at traditional brick and mortar marketplaces. The result is significant growth for the digital commerce industry. Last year, American holiday shoppers reportedly spent $61 billion online.

According to a report by Statistica, online shopping has increased steadily each year.

The Indaba Group holiday preparedness guide, originally published on its website early in August 2015, outlines critical preparation steps suggested for merchants, enabling them to take advantage of increased website traffic as visitors come to shop for holiday gifts. T

“Over the years our customers have traditionally seen huge spikes in traffic and sales during this upcoming time of year,” says CloudCommerce CEO Andrew Van Noy. “So we advise them ahead of time to batten down the hatches and prepare for the coming storm of increased and welcomed sales. We are proud to see our new subsidiary company so thoroughly preparing customers with well thought out advanced tactics, because when our customers succeed, so do we.”

The post CloudCommerce Says ‘Bring on Black Friday’ appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

According to the company announcement, One Time Cache helps acquire first-time visitors while User Prioritization allows companies to predictively prioritizing users during peak traffic.

Last Black Friday online traffic brought down countless Web-based stores. Holiday seasons are an important time to offer optimized shopping experiences and retain customers as 41% of shoppers reported that they purchased from a new retailer last holiday season.

According to a recent study, customers who are engaged with an online shopping experience buy 90% more frequently, spend 60% more per transaction, and deliver three times the value to a brand.

Instart Logic’s One Time Cache and User Prioritization solutions are available today with the company’s application delivery platform. To learn more, click here.

The post Instart Logic Announces New Features Ahead of the Holiday Season appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.