It’s no secret that today’s mobile phones put early supercomputers to shame, and really, smartphones can almost keep up with today’s laptops in terms of letting people email, search, listen to music, and shop. So a session at the Shop.org 2009 Annual Summit explored how retailers should embrace the mobile market.
Coverage of the Shop.org 2009 Annual Summit conference continues at Murdok Videos. Stay with Murdok for more notes and videos from the event this week.
Gary Wohlfeill, Moosejaw‘s creative director, started by explaining that for Moosejaw, ecommerce is “all about customer experience.” He tries to make things fun and interactive, and with regards to what companies should put on their mobile sites, suggested picking whatever works best on the traditional site.
Wohlfeill also stated, “We can’t not be in this space.”
Neal Narayani, the senior manager of mobile and email marketing for Harrah’s Entertainment, then talked about identifying where mobile can serve a business need. He stressed that it’s important to establish success criteria, and the next steps in the process are to measure and refine.
Finally, Ted Hong, Fandango‘s chief marketing officer, established his authority on the subject by pointing out that the percentage of Fandango’s mobile ticket sales has doubled since the launch of Fandango’s iPhone app. Also, according to Nielsen, Fandango is among the top five M-commerce sites.
You might want to follow Hong’s advice to be careful when choosing your mobile allies, then. Determine a roadmap, and if you are going to build a mobile app, take your time and build the product right. It’s important that the app have staying power, since there are so many out there competing for consumers’ attention.
Don’t let these slightly stern tips make mobile sound too scary, though. Hong stressed, “Mobile has fundamentally changed Fandango’s value proposition.”
Murdok Reporter/Anchor Abby Johnson contributed to this report.
