The following quote was found from a study into mobile commerce by Harris Interactive on behalf of Tealeaf Technology:

“63 percent of all online adults surveyed said they would be less likely to buy from the same company via other purchase channels if they experienced a problem conducting a mobile transaction.”

With a huge focus on mobile CRM solutions, consumer expectations of mobile services are rising. What does this mean for brands? What should brands be doing to avoid problems with m-commerce transactions?

Firstly, the buying process should be quick, with the shortest route to checkout possible on the least amount of click-through screens. By making sign-up processes easier, through postponement or complete eradication, brands can minimise the risk of basket abandonment on mobile devices.

Sites should invest in mobile optimised browsing with fully functional but condensed content pages that enable easy menu navigation in simple formatting. Finally, m-commerce sites should include image galleries that offer scrollable, swipable or slide-able navigation or even easily playable videos; visuals are key to the m-commerce experience.

The Tealeaf Technology study also revealed that 85% of clients expect their experience on mobile devices to be better or equal to that online at a desktop or laptop. To illustrate this point, we bring you companies doing m-commerce well:

• Marks & Spencer topped the recent m-commerce benchmark study from eDigitalResearch for the second time offering condensed but fully-functioning page versions for mobile devices
• John Lewis leapfrogged into the number 2 slot after a sharp focus on m-commerce  increased security measures and branding
• ASOS’s incorporation of Facebook into their m-commerce offering allows customers to shop for products without leaving Facebook
• New Look’s revenue increased by 45% as a result of their m-commerce site launched in April, including an 800% increase in site visits

Marks & Spencer's mobile site topped eDigital's Benchmark Mcommerce study

Other e-commerce companies such as Amazon, Google, Ebay (via Paypal) and Apple translate their offer to mobile by offering one-click transactions. While shortening time spent on mobile devices this however requires users to pre-enter credit card details; a factor that some users may not be totally comfortable with.

Derek Eccleston, research director at eDigitalResearch comments on the research findings and future of m-commerce; “Comments indicate that shoppers are less forgiving of bad mobile experiences as they come to expect more and more from the growing possibilities of mobile technology. With the m-commerce revolution in full swing – where the consumer now holds the power to shop when, where and how they want – it has never been more important to provide a seamless mobile customer experience.”

“Our consumer research shows that more and more consumers will be heading onto their mobiles to browse, however far fewer are confident to make a purchase. Top mobile sites therefore need to provide all the functionality, information and details that a mobile consumer needs and expects to encourage them to shop”.

Smartphones and Smarter Shoppers

In reality, customers access m-commerce sites on a spur of the moment; on a whim based on a need at a specific place and time. Brands have to maximise on this need by offering consumers the quickest, hassle free route to what they want. Otherwise, as the study from Harris Interactive on behalf of Tealeaf Technology presents, brand reputation can be damaged discouraging customers from returning, not just to mobile but to the brand’s other purchase channels.

Too many brands still react heavy-handedly when faced with online criticism or PR failures, and all too often they end up adding fuel to the fire. Bad news travels fast – faster still online – and online audiences can be quick to turn against brands when they come out on the offensive, guns blazing and spewing fire.

There has been no clearer example of this than the recent behaviour of the US Government in relation to the so-called “cablegate” crisis and the embarrassing publication of 251,287 leaked United States embassy cables by WikiLeaks.

From the outset the US has taken an uncompromising stance, refusing to negotiate with WikiLeaks, and insisting that the site is guilty of violating US laws. In a publicly-released letter addressed to Julian Assange the WikiLeaks founder, Harold Koh (legal adviser to the State Department) said: “We will not engage in a negotiation regarding the further release or dissemination of illegally obtained US government classified materials,” before demanding that the files stop being published, are returned to the US government and are deleted from the WikiLeaks server.

This has been followed by a barrage of comments from US Government officials, representatives and political commentators attacking the site, including Sarah Palin’s demand that Assange be pursued like the leaders of al-Qaeda and the Taliban, and Canadian political scientist Tom Flanagan suggestion that that: “Assange should be assassinated” … “I think Obama should put out a contract and maybe use a drone or something.”

Other comments include:

• Assange is guilty of treason against the US (he’s not)
• WikiLeaks have broken the law by publishing the documents (they haven’t – it’s illegal to leak confidential information, but not to possess it)
• US federal employees and contractors should not try and view the secret cables unless the have the requisite security clearance.

So what has been the result of this barrage of attacks levelled at both Assange and WikiLeaks from the world’s most powerful government? Surely they have crumbled and collapsed in the face of such an overwhelming onslaught?

Strangely not. In fact the reverse seems to have happened, and despite a Denial of Service attack, the arrest of Assange in London, and the blocking of the site’s main web address, the information now appears to have been disseminated even more widely, through mirrors of the site, torrent downloads and the WikiLeaks twitter feed.

In addition, web users around the world have been quick to criticise not only the US Government, but also Amazon (for removing the site from its hosted servers), PayPal (for freezing its account), Twitter (for apparently removing WikiLeaks from its trending topics) and both MasterCard and Visa (for not allowing payments to the site).

Furthermore, WikiLeaks seems to have now been given the moral high ground, and is perceived by many as a subject of bullying and persecution from the US government and political establishment. As Jack Shafer neatly wrote: “Don’t they appreciate that they’re making anarchists out of baristas and housewives?”

So how can the US government have handled this differently? Firstly they needed to take control of the dialogue and be seen to be acting in a measured, reasonable fashion – in short, acting like leaders. The more drama which is created around a story, the more people want to get involved, and the more people start taking sides. People will tend to go – particularly online – for the underdog rather than the big corporate. And the US of A is ABSOLUTELY the big corporate.

They had to engage the public, acknowledging that while WikiLeaks were clearly in a position to release all the information, some of the leaks would be not just damaging but directly put lives at risk. They had to put the case that all governments keep things secret and that sometimes there is a legitimate reason for this, even if it is not immediately clear to the public why this is the case. A joint process of redaction (on this basis) could have followed and while much information would still have come out, the site would not have garnered the same level of publicity, support and sympathy.

Is it truly possible to turn a situation like this around? Four years ago, a number of Dell laptops began to suffer catastrophic battery failures: they were literally catching fire. The problems were widely reported, driven by websites, blogs, and YouTube videos featuring the infernos in question. As a result, Dell launched the biggest recall in computing history. It’s hard to picture a worse position for a computer firm to be in.

Since then Dell has spent the last four years talking to its customers, engaging with them to not only improve its hardware but also to improve its customer services. In 2007 it joined Twitter as part of this strategy. In the company’s own words: “Dell’s evolution on Twitter is driven by the realization that social media has centralized the customer experience.” And the results of this activity? Last year Dell revealed that it had generated over $6.5m from its Twitter accounts.

If Dell can recover from products that burst into flames on people’s laps then surely almost any brand or organisation can overcome their customer perception issues but it all starts with getting involved in the conversation and not ignoring or being aggressive to your customers.

Tesco Clubcard and social CRM is going where no brand has gone before

As a near-constant social media user it’s interesting watching the gradual shift to an increasingly connected lifestyle. We’ve clearly passed a tipping point in terms of how willing people are to openly share their personal lives online, be it their holiday snaps, favourite restaurants or even the minutia of their daily lives.

For the purposes of Social CRM though, we’re only just crossing over the edge of the New Frontier as people begin to wonder just how comfortable they really are letting companies get involved with their online lives.

Thus far the majority of web users have happily come to accept how services such as Amazon and iTunes are able to track their usage in order to not only tell them about other products they might enjoy but also what other users with similar tastes are purchasing. Although it’s obvious that these services must be tracking and collating their users’ activity in order to work properly, those same users don’t feel threatened because the resulting benefits are seen to be valuable (even when Amazon occasionally suggests a completely random item based on a gift you bought for a friend’s child three months ago).

In the bricks and mortar world, most people also don’t tend to be scared of loyalty cards such as Tesco’s Clubcard, even though there lies an army of data analysts behind the scenes poring over every possible metric to define which audiences buys what products, where and when. In contrast shoppers not only feel rewarded when their points arrive but they also benefit from ancilliallary features such as their personalised list of frequently-bought items.

Both the Amazon suggestion and Clubcard reward models are essentially reactive however, and neither system is able to preemptively communicate with consumers in order to fulfil their potential needs.

At Neoco we’re trying to define better and more integrated social CRM models for these forms of communication, which are fundamentally designed to be more proactive. With this in mind we’re looking at how we can take existing models and create new systems which truly interact with consumers.

Let’s say that three of your friends had bought tickets to Tom Jones and advertised the fact on Facebook. Wouldn’t it be beneficial to receive an alert letting you know that they would be going to the concert and offering you the chance to buy your own ticket? This is a simple extension of current functionality but already the end user is having their possible needs preempted.

Taking this idea on step further, what if the system was able to truly join up the data in a way that the end user might just not anticipate? Imagine that your friend Susan hadn’t gone into work one Monday morning and had written on her Facebook status that she was feeling “unwell ” and might have a cold starting. It just so happens you were out with Susan on Saturday night, so you could have been with her when she started to turn ill. How much benefit might you gain from being offered discount vouchers for Vitamin C tablets and Jaffa oranges at this precise moment? Luckily, you have previously linked to your Tesco Clubcard (or supermarket/pharmacy of choice) via your Facebook profile using Facebook Connect and they are able to make just such a personalised offer to you. A few days later they can send you a follow up message offering you vouchers for decongestant tablets just in case you’ve also become ill. They can then repeat the process to relevant friends in your network.

In this instance, the customer is not forced into making a purchase, though they are able to make an informed choice based on a connection they probably would not have made themselves. In addition there is inherent value for the customer in being offered something they may need via a deal, while the retailer clearly benefits from greater sales, and the brand gains the glow of being ‘caring’.

Some of you may be crying “Big Brother” at this stage, but it won’t be long before you could well be wondering how you ever managed without your brand-lead social alerts…

One user posted “I walked from my trailer to Wal-mart with the shirt on and was immediately approached by women.”

But unfortunately manufacturers don’t quite see the funny side and were quoted on the BBC saying “Not everyone can start out at the top and not everyone from our neck of the woods lives in a trailer or cruises Walmart to hook up.”

Quite… But not everyone has a Three Wolf Moon T-shirt!

Improve your life

This is great example of a successful (although involuntary) seeding and viral campaign. Neoco help brands do this all the time to great effect. Look at the brand, product or service that needs promoting, then identify a niche that we can use to amplify the message.

Thanks to BBC

Waterstones have been over-charging on their books. Naughty

The common assumption is that almost everything is cheaper online. Lower staffing and ‘bricks and mortar’ costs means savings made can be passed on to the consumer via deals and discounted RRP. There is no doubt that one of the biggest beneficiaries of this in recent years has been the Book industry. Since Amazon lead the charge, books have never been so popular. And this seems to be something that Waterstones has been using to it’s advantage as a recent report from The Bookseller shows Waterstones selling books online at a higher price point than the RRP.

Check out internet Retailing article here

This brings up another important online factor – laziness. People have become very lazy shoppers online, almost total creatures of habit. The assumption is that they are getting a good deal and so they go with what’s in front of them. This is massive business on portals like Ebay – a friend of mine makes about £20,000 profit annually buying stuff from traditional websites – like PC world, Amazon – and then selling for a mark-up on Ebay. And it sells. People cannot even be bothered to price check when it would take a few minutes.

Waterstones will likely lose some customers now but it shows the value of a brand that people trust – they won’t look elsewhere. If you want to help build a trusted brand online (and not rip off consumers) then get in touch with us at Neoco. We have a wealth of experience communicating brand messaging and communications to the right audience in the right way – from traditional online methods to emerging ones like social networks.

amazon trade-in grab

In these budget-minded times, companies aplenty have begun offering cash or trade-ins in exchange for unwanted electronics, gift cards and gold. Now, from none other than Amazon, comes a program to offer gift cards in exchange for second-hand video games.

To be eligible, games must be in good condition and include the original manual, cover art and case. Amazon’s Video Game Trade-In site lists a wide variety of games it will accept, along with their trade-in values. For Wii, for example, “Marvel Ultimate Alliance” is valued at USD 6, “Winter Sports the Ultimate Challenge” brings in USD 6.50 and “Super Paper Mario” is valued at USD 15.50. On Xbox 360, on the other hand, “Call of Duty: World at War” brings in USD 24.25. For shipments valued at USD 10 or more, Amazon even gives consumers a way to ship them for free. Upon receipt, Amazon deposits an Amazon.com Gift Card into the consumer’s account. The games, meanwhile, are ultimately purchased by a third-party merchant. While trade-in prices might not be as high as a seller can get on eBay, there’s no denying that Amazon’s service is the more convenient option.

Until economic conditions begin to improve, consumers will continue to seek out recession-busting strategies to make their hard-won dollars, euros and yen go further. Help them do that, and you just may be able to do some recession-busting yourself!

Interesting to see how this impacts ebay and the other high street retailers like Game, HMV, Blockbuster and CEX.

RB @Springwise

monty python you tube channel banner

“We’re letting you see absolutely everything for free. So there! But we want something in return. None of your driveling, mindless comments. Instead, we want you to click on the links, buy our movies & TV shows and soften our pain and disgust at being ripped off all these years.”

And you know what? It seems to be working. Monty Python’s DVDs climbed to No. 2 on Amazon’s Movies & TV bestsellers list, with increased sales of 23,000 percent!

Great marketing ploy to get one last silly walk from the dead parrot.
Enjoy.

virtual window shopping at Amazon

The saying is that everything comes full circle, eventually. Fitting then that Amazon, the company that effectively killed the idea of window shopping (or took it to the nth level depending on your viewpoint) have released a new beta site called Windowshop.

Use your arrow keys to pick a genre, and then space bar to zoom in and watch the video content. It’s fun, well made but ultimately just a gimmick. A nice add on might have been a hook up with your amazon account, add to wishlist, etc. Still time for these add-ons though as it is a beta, though one wonders if it will ever leave beta or is it just a nice little bit of PR?

Borders has gone solo, after its 7 year web sales tie in with Amazon. David Runk of the AP announced that Borders has returned to being an independent online bookstore, with a major facelift designed to increase interest in its brand.

I’ve had a look around the site, borders.com, and think its a really cool and easy to use site. The storefront has rich visuals, with ‘The Magic Shelf’ centrepiece – a browser window that users can interact with to view highlighted books, music, and movies. Users can operate this menu several ways. If you choose on option from the lefthand menu, it will take you to your desired shelf. You can then toggle the arrows at the edges of the window to see all new and/or recommended picks. Or you can simply grab the window and drag your way about the shelves. Whichever way, its great to be given the choice of how you want to browse.
Borders claim that it is refreshing its online storefront not just to compete combating with the likes of Amazon and Barnes & Noble, but also to create a more interactive experience for its customers, with author-contributed shortlists, interviews, and other content. Borders also states that, even with the launch of its new website, it remains open to a sale of the business. According to the AP, Borders announced some two months ago that it might put itself up for sale, and that Barnes & Noble very recently “confirmed it put together a team to study the feasibility of a deal.”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgQMTLKmwrA]