Mobile adoption is occurring five times faster than other technologies. You can be sure a segment of your customer base wants to interact with your site from their mobile device.

The younger the demographic is, the more important it is to have a mobile application. Also if your demographic and customers are really into social media and your fans are following tweets, then a mobile application is probably very important. If your demographic is still shopping bricks-and-mortar, then investing in mobile may not be the best use of development or marketing dollars this holiday season.

Overall, you need to understand what your customers’ needs and wants are and spend that money appropriately to reach them.

Given that many people are traveling and away from the TV and their PCs during the holidays, and the fact that people need to do more in less time, mobile phones are one of the best places brands can exist these days.

Think about other forms of marketing and advertising—nothing has a continual touch point with the customer the majority of their day. People have their phone out at work, it’s with them—and likely their entertainment—on the ride home, and it’s even next to people when they sleep.

Studies have shown that people would rather lose their wallet than their phone. 

All that said, people still demand immediacy. Mobile sites need to load quickly, be quick to help solve a problem or let the user find what they want in a hurry.

The mobile site should to help increase efficiency and save consumers time. This gain can come in many forms. Give a customer the ability to research ratings, prices and reviews on your site from their phone, which will help them avoid the wait to talk to a sales associate. Shoppers can also save time by using a mobile site checkout to avoid lines or can even pre-order ahead of time from their phone and have their purchase delivered to their car outside of the store.

Mobile advertising is significant/necessary for marketers during the 2010 holiday season.

More than 50 percent of consumers used mobile devices for 2009 in-store holiday shopping activity, according to a study by Motorola Enterprise Mobile Solutions.

Of those who used their phone, forty-five percent used it for research, nearly a third used it to get coupons or product reviews, and 25 percent used their mobile device to purchase a good or service.

Since the mobile commerce revenue numbers are projected to double from $1.2 billion to $2.4 billion this year, the 2010 holiday season will be no exception to the growth. 

Sixty-four percent of consumers between ages 18-34 used their device for shopping, while 33 percent of consumers over 34 years old used their device. These percentages will continue to grow, so being in the mobile space is more important than ever.

Mobile adoption is occurring five times faster than other technologies, with no signs of slowing. The ever increasing use of mobile devices by consumers is giving savvy retailers a huge opportunity to cut through the clutter of a busy marketing world and communicate directly and effectively to customers.

This year has opened consumers’ minds to using mobile for doing research, gathering opinions and sharing them with peers via social media, as well as making purchases.

Because of these consumer trends, this year it is more important than ever to have a mobile presence, especially for the 2010 holiday season. Retailers are realizing this and have made mobile a priority for 2010.

The main point is that this year the sheer number of smartphone users has more than doubled, and industry experts predict at least 65 million more to be enabled by year’s end.

Opportunity

It is not just about smartphones either. IPod touches and tablets are big now too.

For the first time there are more smartphones than desktop computers being sold, according to market researcher IDC.com. The desktop is dying and smartphones are the way of the future. More people are going to carry them around and that is a powerful opportunity for retailers.

The demographic of smartphone users is attractive to retailers. The average mobile subscriber is age 25-34 and nearly twice as likely to make more than $100,000, according to NielsenWire. The demographic is great for retailers in terms of the customer base they want to reach.

Experience

Consumers expect a great mobile experience. A good mobile experience reflects positively on a brand and a bad one reflects negatively on a brand. 

Mobile represents an additional or incremental revenue opportunity because people can buy anytime and anywhere. It also lets them buy immediately, playing on the impulse purchase.  

Driving in-store purchase

1800Flowers said that mobile consumers search and evaluate products on their devices.

One consumer walked into a store with her mobile phone and said she wanted to buy what she had found on her mobile device. She picked the item she wanted using her mobile phone but came into the store to actually complete the transaction.

This example illustrates a great way to take advantage of mobile and drive people into stores.

Social media is becoming a big component of the mobile Web strategies of retailers. Consumers post stuff on their Facebook and have friends and relatives evaluate products.

If the response is positive, then consumers go and purchase the product or the service. Social via mobile is a great way to generate response and also useful for instant feedback.

The ratings and reviews around products help consumers make that decision, which is great during the holidays.

Best practices

For mobile Web sites, the experience should be unique for mobile. It should not be the desk top Web site revamped for mobile. Think in terms of better fitting the mobile consumer.

During the holidays that may mean highlighting special offers and special promotions right up front. 

There is a lot of activity from retailers that want to enable for the 2010 holiday season. It is a major priority this year for retailers.

Mobile coupons, social media, customer service, location and iAd are the top mobile commerce trends that retailers are focusing on in 2010 and will likely be part of the holiday mix.

 

Trend #1 – Mobile Couponing

A recent Exposure2 report found that mobile coupon redemption rates can often exceed 50 percent, while paper coupons typically have a redemption rate of only 0.2 percent to 2 percent.

Trend #2 – Location

The biggest trend for now is Foursquare, which allows people to “check-in” through their phones and reveal geographic locations they go to. Both large retailers and brick and mortar stores are taking advantage of this by providing coupons and freebies to those who check-in often or first.

Trend #3 – Social

Using mobile for sharing is a huge component of mobile commerce initiatives in 2010 and the same will hold true for the holiday season.

Trend #4 – Analytics

In mobile, analytics play an important role when trying to figure out what works and what does not, especially in a platform-specific setting. There is a difference between a mobile-friendly site and a mobile-optimized site. A best practice is start building your mobile site by optimizing the top 10 used features on your Web site. For example, increase the size of the search field to take up a larger percent of the page than it does on a regular Web site, as search is such an important part of the mobile experience.

Trend #5 – Investment

Investments are changing drastically this year and major retailers are expected to invest an average of $170,000 on their mobile sites this year.