As promised, I kicked off my mobile-centric holiday shopping on Thanksgiving, and kept going straight through to Cyber Monday. Although, again, I’ll be incorporating in-store, “traditional” e-commerce and mobile shopping, my goal is to integrate my new iPhone 6 into some aspect of each holiday purchase, be it researching then heading to a brick-and-mortar location, comparing prices, or completing the entire conversion process on my phone. This year, every gift under my tree will have emerged—somehow—from mobile shopping.
Though in-store is fair game, I wound up avoiding brick-and-mortar retail over Thanksgiving weekend. I had leftovers to eat, and those lines looked long. I was exclusively mobile for these three huge shopping days.
Mobile Shopping Experience #1: Vintage Scrabble Set at Restoration Hardware
My first “stop,” interestingly, was a retro one—a Restoration Hardware catalog sitting on my coffee table. In it, I found a vintage Scrabble game, perfect for my Scrabble-loving family. The brand’s mobile site is solid, from a design and usability perspective. It looks especially amazing in a landscape view on my iPhone 6. Beyond that, even, the path to purchase was seamless and the homepage promotion—save $100 on every $500, including sale items—got my attention.
As I continued, I had an interesting reaction: Restoration Hardware’s mobile site was so good it made me want to download the company’s app. That positive interaction and fantastic usability pulled me further into the brand experience—now I’ve got the app, and Restoration Hardware has that much of a deeper in-road with me, the shopper.
Rating: A great experience with one challenge—I wasn’t planning to spend $500, so a discount on the $199 Scrabble set would have earned my purchase. Oh well—I’ve downloaded the app and will keep an eye on it. At this time of year, promotions and discounts must jump off the screen and grab consumers, or they’ll look elsewhere.
Mobile Shopping Experience #2: A Must-Have Video Game
My son really wants Far Cry 4, the latest in a popular video game series. I grab my phone and Google “Far Cry 4 Black Friday deals” and voila! Lots of options to learn more, read reviews, and buy. Because it’s a very recent release, my first pass looking for promo codes was a bust. That didn’t deter me—I kept plugging away until I found a promotion for a free download, plus a Samsung solid state drive (SSD). That’s a major bonus for Kevin the Consumer (and Kevin the Dad), since my son’s wanted to breathe new life into his laptop for a while—this SSD would definitely do the trick.
More digging unveiled another code for the game—just $60 on Black Friday—in addition to massive electronics discounts on some sites. As I continued, I found other manufacturers and game publishers offering free access to downloadable content and video games along with other well-priced add-ons.
Did I convert? Absolutely. I turned to my trusty Amazon app (as I almost always do) to price compare and see if I can take advantage of two-day Prime shipping. I could, and I converted on the spot. To make matters even better, it was an almost one-click purchase—the only additional step was to enter a promo code for a discounted download, which I happily did. I got the game plus the SSD, for $100 off, and the entire purchase journey from search to buy happened on my iPhone. Bonus.
Rating: Perfect example of a deal I couldn’t refuse—a massive discount, an extra add-on, plus Amazon Prime to ensure I have my gift in-hand by early this week, sans shipping costs. What’s not to love?
Mobile Shopping Experience #3: Get me a GoPro
Although the shopping blitz seemed to kick off on Thursday and go straight through to Monday night, in the interest of digital marketing (and crossing more off my family’s wish lists), I gave my mobile shopping another go on Cyber Monday.
Next up: a GoPro for my 12-year-old. I wanted to get him something a little better than the basic model, and started plugging away at Cyber Monday deals the minute they dropped. I came up with the same $199 price over and over, despite trying a few different search tactics. Every retailer offered free shipping—not enough to drive an immediate conversion from me.
The more I searched, though, the more I found many sites that weren’t optimized for mobile. Dumping me on a homepage or other irrelevant category page—especially on a nonmobile optimized site—is the surest way to lose me. There may have even been a great GoPro offer buried somewhere, but I guess I wasn’t meant to find it. Had these brands sent me to a specific landing page or, at the very least, one relevant to my search, it would have been a different story. A clear-cut customer path matters even more on mobile—brands have a smaller screen to contend with, so more has to be done with much less, visually speaking. Get me there, show me what I want, and make it easy—that’s a simple, solid mobile experience.
From there, I moved to some favorites: REI, Target, Walmart, and Best Buy. I knew I would get a good mobile shopping experience from these brands, and I was right:
REI’s mobile site, as always, was easy to navigate, but the product was no longer available. The site did, however, direct me to similar products based on my search—not exactly what I wanted, but the recommendations were relevant and made me linger, which is always a plus.
Walmart’s mobile site was strong but I wasn’t able to complete my transaction exclusively via e- The GoPro was only available for in-store pickup—it’s great I can see where it’s available near me, and I’m open to using it this year on my mobile convergence quest, but was still surprised it couldn’t be delivered.
Similar experience with Target—the only option was in-store pickup.
Best Buy’s mobile landing page was exceptional, from search through shopping cart. No complaints.
I didn’t convert—yet. But I definitely will, and know exactly where I’ll start (and likely end) my purchase process.
Rating: I was disappointed that some sites weren’t optimized for mobile. If one had really wowed me, I likely would have downloaded the app, signed up for the company e-Newsletter, or, at the very least, bookmarked the site and checked back in a few days. Some of the larger brands were the clear winners, but I would have liked to ship the gift. Best Buy stood out, overall, and I’ll be back to buy, I’m sure.
The shopping continues over the next few weeks—check back for updates and some reviews, observations, and general optimization tips, whether you’re looking to buy or looking to increase your brand’s mobile site capabilities in 2015. Happy shopping!
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