Best-In-Class Mobile Retail Experiences Serve The Tactical Shopper

Last year, the pandemic further pushed consumers to digital channels: In the US, e-commerce constituted 20.9% of total US retail sales, up significantly from 17.2% just a year earlier. As consumers cautiously return to physical stores, we expect in-store use of mobile devices will rise also, whether to find items in-store or to place curbside pickup orders. Retailers and brands now must capture the most important use cases and best-in-class examples to meet growing consumer expectations.

Not all mobile commerce happens on mobile apps specifically, of course, but apps have some advantages over retailer mobile websites. Among those advantages for consumers: digital wallets, SMS messaging, wayfinding in-store, and even autonomous checkout methods such as scan and go.

Plus, retailers’ recent efforts to accommodate new customer expectations on mobile resulted in consumers reporting fewer friction points on mobile compared with 2018. For several years, we’ve asked US online adults who use a smartphone why they didn’t use it to buy products or services via a mobile app or site. In 2020, just 13% said that they only like to research (not buy) on their mobile phone — down from almost one-quarter (23%) in 2018. And fewer of them in 2020 also said that they didn’t buy on a mobile device because the mobile phone screen was too small, that they didn’t feel safe using mobile payment services, or that mobile apps didn’t have the same content, features, and functionality as standard websites.

So Where Should You Start To Improve Your Retail Mobile App?

In our new research, “The Forrester Digital Experience Review™: US Retail Mobile Apps, Q1 2021,“ we review seven US retailers for mobile app functionality and user experience considerations. We outline best practices for a range of mobile experiences, from shopping features and functionality to list building and sharing capabilities, plus in-context support availability.

In addition to our report, please join us for our upcoming webinar, Is This The Year Of The Retailer App?, and schedule an inquiry with us!