Over the last 4 or 5 years there has been vigorous debate regarding when, exactly, the true potential of mobile will be realized.

Mobile mapping, mobile TV, check-ins, mobile payments, push ads, games, QR Codes, NFC, Daily Deals, SMS, virtual mobile currency, pop-up ads, barcode scanning, coupons, and a litany of others have had their moment in the sun, but none have generated commerce upside at a truly transformational level.

Turning Point 2011

Finally, as 2011 came to a close, we saw real, tracked and reported numbers that were far too numerically impressive to be dismissed as a fad or trend. These numbers were tied to Mobile Commerce.

When I say mobile commerce, I do not mean mobile payments, which I define as paying for items at checkout, using your mobile phone. I an referring to online sales converted on mobile websites specifically designed and formatted for this purpose. Example: m.finishline.com

Retailers & Brands Lag Behind, Fueling The Opportunity

For years, online retailers and brands waited, while their customers flocked to web-connected smartphones and, as a result, small screens are now crammed with large format websites never designed for this purpose.

In late 2011 retailers and brands finally started waking up and launching mobile optimized sites, and this fueled explosive growth and big profits for those still out ahead of the curve.

Mobile consumers can finally land on mobile-optimized commerce-enabled websites and the traffic to these sites can be converted into transactions in a trusted, secure environment. These mobile conversion metrics are the key and the resulting revenue numbers are real, undeniable, and impactful.

Changing Expectations

As more brands and retailers launch mobile commerce sites, consumer expectations have changed rapidly. In fact, most consumers surveyed now expect mobile sites to not only function, but to work better than  standard e-commerce sites.

Retailers and big brands are finally realizing that mobile commerce is not some fringe distraction to their e-commerce team, but, rather, a way to add 10-20% to their bottom line in incremental revenue. That’s right, retailers and brands are not stealing from Peter to pay Paul, and most see no drop in “traditional” online sales. It’s all upside.

For athletic shoe retail giant Finish Line, their mobile site now makes up 14% of their total online traffic. For adult online retail leader Adam & Eve, mobile commerce accounted for a whopping 8% of their total revenue, only 2 weeks after it was launched.

Still not convinced that mobile commerce has ushered in a revenue-fueled turning point that should/will change the entire tenor of the mobile space? Here are the numbers.

2011 Mobile Commerce Stats

-PayPal saw a 397% increase in consumers shopping via PayPal Mobile on Cyber Monday 2011, vs 2010.

-Rue La La saw an almost 200% increase in mobile sales on Cyber Monday 2011 vs 2010.

-Ebay’s Black Friday mobile commerce sales were up 516%, over 2010.

-2011 mobile commerce sales were up 91.4% over 2010.- In 2012, mobile commerce is expected to increase another 73.1% to $11.6 billion.

-The average mobile commerce purchase was $123 (vs. $87 for purchases from desktop PCs).

-Shopping by mobile users doubled from 1.87% to 3.87% of all online purchases in the past 9 months!

-During the 2011 Holiday season, 44% of all Google searches for last minute gifts and store locator terms were from mobile devices

-Of consumers surveyed, 70% use their smartphones in stores and 77% have contacted a business via mobile.

-64% of smartphone owners age 18-24 used a smartphone to find a deal this Holiday season.

-According to IBM, mobile traffic made up 18.3% of all online traffic on Christmas day 2011.

Conclusions

Mobile commerce transactions can occur anytime, anywhere and are being initiated on smartphones carried religiously by almost 50% of Americans. Online sales are no longer occurring only in front of a desktop or laptop, but anywhere and anytime. Retailers and brands should take notice.

Even more importantly, mobile commerce sales can be triggered by real world interactions with marketing initiatives most retailers and brands are already paying for! Printed mailings or catalogs, in-store point of purchase displays, peer to peer recommendations, signage, social media campaigns, emails, etc can all serve as mobile trigger points, when they are accessed by mobile consumers. The (largely untracked) digital media marketing spend already occurring can be tapped to drive mobile commerce, with tracked results. This means that smart brands (or their agencies) can (and should) be able to adjust these campaigns on the fly, to maximize ROI, in the form of tracked incremental mobile commerce revenue.

The biggest takeaway here is directed toward online retailers or brands who still do not have an integrated mobile commerce solution. Read and digest the numbers above and ask yourself this simple question, “How easy it is for a mobile consumer to visit my website and convert a sale?” (Hint: Try it!).

If you do not have a mobile site, the answer will be painfully obvious. Make fixing this your 2012 New Year’s resolution!

_______________________________

Wilson Kerr (@WLLK) is VP of Sales and Business Development for Unbound Commerce.  Contact Wilson today to learn more. Mobile: 303-249-2083.

Some of the stats in this post were compiled from various sources by Gabrielle Kalika of Mobile Marketer. I have added added more my own, also compiled from various sources. All stats can be verified, via Google search.

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American Medical ID has rolled out a commerce-enabled mobile site to let medical patients buy identification tags via their handsets.

American Medical ID is launching the mobile site after realizing that medical patients need a place to buy ID jewelry in places such as hospitals and doctor offices. The company is working with Unbound Commerce on this initiative.

“Most interactions with medical professionals and pharmacists happen when consumers are being diagnosed and treated,” said Wilson Kerr, director of business development and sales at Unbound Commerce, Boston.

“The mobile site from American Medical ID means consumers can purchase potentially lifesaving custom-engraved medical ID jewelry, from the hospital, doctor’s office or pharmacy,” he said.

Personalized message
One of the main hooks for using the American Medical ID mobile site is that it lets consumers customize their medical ID tags similar to the company’s Web site.

To access the mobile site, consumers can enter http://m.americanmedical-ID.com on their mobile browser.

The homepage features the company’s products and shows users how the medical tags can be used and what they look like.

Consumers can then filter their choices at the top of the page, which is broken into bracelets, necklaces and accessories.

The mobile site also features a deal section to highlight products that are on sale.

Once consumers have selected an item, they can put their personal touch on it with a custom engraving that are approximately 16 characters long, depending on the product.

Users can also spell check their engravings and send them to friends and family via email.

American Medical ID is also using QR codes in its direct mail materials that link the company’s mobile site, which is helpful for patients looking to buy items on the spot at a hospital or doctor’s office after being diagnosed.

Users can also call a 1-800 American Medical ID number to get instant help.

“A mobile commerce site offers consumers the ability to convert a time-sensitive transaction, when and where they are most likely to convert a purchase,” Mr. Kerr said.

“Mobile marketing complements the site, as linking mobile click-through traffic to a non-optimized site leads to a very poor customer experience,” he said.

Mobile health

This is American Medical ID’s first foray into mobile.

The company decided to use a mobile site after seeing a significant portion of traffic coming from handsets to a non-optimized location.

American Medical ID was also able to integrate mobile into its existing marketing efforts with QR codes that led to a mobile experience.

A mobile site makes sense for the company because as consumers are diagnosed, they need a quick way to buy medical supplies and are likely to have their mobile devices on them.

“Smart retailers know that 50 percent of consumers will own a smartphone this year and mobile commerce is exploding,” Mr. Kerr said.

“Without an integrated mobile site, mobile marketing drives consumers to a site not designed to work on the device they are viewing it on,” he said.

http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/2011/12/19/american-medical-id-lets-medica…

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Unbound Commerce today announced selection by Google as a mobile commerce solution provider included in a new Google-led initiative called “GoMo,” which provides retailers the tools and resources they need to make their websites more mobile-friendly.

Framingham, MA (PRWEB) November 01, 2011

“Unbound is pleased to have been selected by Google. We are rolling out a new service offering specifically for this program, so retailers that use Google tools can rapidly become mobile-optimized, and track the linkage between Google advertising and incremental mobile commerce revenue generation,” said Wilson Kerr, Unbound’s Director of Business Development & Sales.

Google’s Mobile Ads program allows advertisers to connect with customers on the go, and to drive customer acquisition, conversion and leads, through mobile advertising campaigns. In order to help the 79% of Google’s largest advertisers who still do not have a mobile-optimized site for traffic generated from ads or organic search, Google is working to help businesses go mobile and deliver a mobile optimized site experience for potential customers.

Called gStores™, the new service from Unbound Commerce uses technology to tap into the Google tools retailers already use, like Checkout, Analytics, Commerce, and data feeds. This approach reduces friction and allows rapid and cost-effective build and deployment of mobile retail sites. Mobile sales can also be linked directly to Google mobile ad campaigns. This new service from Unbound was launched in conjunction with the launch of GoMo and retailers of any size can take advantage today, via a tiered service offering.

Retailers can link to gStores™ from the GoMo Resource Center or directly by going tohttp://www.UnboundCommerce.com/gStores.

About Unbound Commerce 
Unbound Commerce is the industry’s #1 provider of mobile commerce solutions, for Retailers seeking to reach their customers anytime and anywhere. Unbound’s unique approach treats mobile as a powerful new channel, not merely a shrunken version of a standard site. Unbound retail customers benefit from a solution directly under their control and integrated into their existing e-commerce operations. The 2011 issue of the Mobile Commerce Data Book from Internet Retailer shows Unbound Commerce as the #1 mobile commerce vendor, with an industry-leading number of mobile commerce site deployments. Unbound Commerce’s approach also delivers a social commerce store for Facebook, allowing consumers to buy where they connect through social media, as well as commerce-enabled iPhone and Android applications and in-store tablet-based mobile commerce. For additional information, please visit us http://www.UnboundCommerce.com.

About GoMo 
GoMo is a Google-led initiative dedicated to helping businesses ‘Go Mobile’ by providing them with the tools and resources they need to make their websites more mobile-friendly. On Google’s GoMo website, participating businesses can use the GoMoMeter tool to see how their own sites look and perform on mobile devices, and get personalized recommendations for developing a more mobile-friendly experience for their sites. The GoMo site has information about current mobile trends, best practices for launching mobile sites, a list of developers ready to help companies build sites for mobile, and much more. For more information, visit: http://www.howtogomo.com

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Steady growth in mobile traffic and in customers forsaking computers drove the decision.

Dover Saddlery Inc., a multichannel retailer of equestrian products, has launched a mobile commerce site, accessible through any mobile web browser by typing in the conventional URL, DoverSaddlery.com, which automatically redirects a shopper to the mobile-optimized site. The site was built by Unbound Commerce; Dover Saddlery is the m-commerce technology provider’s 125th client.

“We have noticed a dramatic increase in mobile visitors to our site and wanted to be sure we were converting these customers by providing the best possible mobile experience,” says Jason Loy, director of e-commerce.

3.3% of total traffic to the merchant’s e-commerce site in November came from mobile devices. That number grew to 3.4% in December and 3.6% in January.

“We have seen steady growth over the course of 2010 and continuing into 2011,” Loy says. “These numbers exclude iPad traffic, though, which is an experience we consider to be more akin to a desktop computer because of the size of the screen and the way our site renders on it versus a smaller screen.”

Dover Saddlery, No. 309 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide, believes m-commerce is a perfect fit for its customers.

“Our target audience is using mobile devices at an ever-increasing rate as a way to research the products they need,” Loy says. “Our customers are on the road, attending horse shows, or out in the barn, and their smartphone is the device they have with them when they determine they have a need for the types of products we offer.”

http://www.internetretailer.com/2011/02/14/dover-saddlery-trots-mobile-commerce

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More info at: 

http://www.internetretailer.com/2011/02/10/62-consumers-have-purchased-goods-…

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SMS marketing with out a mobile site or mobile site without SMS marketing are half solutions to grow mobile revenue. Retailers who build m-commerce system by integrating with their backend e-commerce stack and CRM systems will be most successful on m-Channel.

Here is an article that explains why its important:

http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/2011/02/08/most-mobile-apps-have-no-connec…

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Mobile Commerce Daily’s Mobile Commerce Outlook 2011

Sky’s The Limit For M-Commerce

By Mickey Alam Khan

The mobile commerce opportunities for retailers are several.

First, mobile expands the number of channels for retailers. Contrary to what the Internet did to other channels such as the catalog, mobile will have an incremental effect on overall retail sales, and not cannibalize ecommerce.

Second, mobile adds legs to other channels. Expect mobile tactics such as SMS marketing to drive traffic to stores with incentives such as coupons, alerts, discounts, new-merchandise updates and store openings.

Third, mobile adds a social element to the shopping experience. Happy shoppers will tweet, Facebook Like or post positive comments on feedback pages if the retail experience on mobile or in-store was satisfactory and more.

Fourth, mobile allows for price and product comparison on the spot. While this is a double-edged sword – after all, Amazon is poised to become the de facto mobile comparison shopping engine for mobile commerce – it also offers a new layer of transparency to the shopping process.

Fifth, mobile is an excellent marketing channel for retailers. Its potential to add to the overall customer loyalty program is mouth-watering. If there is one area that retailers are neglecting it is this: they are not moving fast enough to capture opt-in mobile numbers to market to consumers.

A CRM program without a mobile component is an incomplete program. It is a must to communicate with customers in the channel they are most comfortable with, and that today is mobile – via SMS and email.

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Very good article:

http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/2011/02/04/three-keys-to-building-a-mobile…

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