Mobile shoppers want to use their phones to interact with
merchants while they shop.
We know from various studies that mobile devices are routinely used for product research and checking who has the best price on any given item before even going to
the store.
Based on one recent study, it also appears that online shoppers expect live chat to be available as well.
The majority (62%) of online shoppers expects live mobile chat to
be available and most (82%) said they would use it, based on a survey of 2,100 consumers conducted by Survey Monkey for Moxie Software, which, as you may guess, is a company that provides mobile
chat.
It seems logical that a mobile consumer shopping online would lean toward totally online interactions. The Moxie survey found that 75% of consumers would rather use live online chat than
speak to a person.
I have to wonder if this would be true in stores as well.
Previous studies have shown that a large number of in-store shoppers would rather use their mobile device
to get product information rather than dealing with a salesperson. I’m not sure that’s a statement about the quality or availability of information via mobile or a perception of
anticipated, in-store salespeople interactions.
I’ve always thought a tap-to-call feature could be of potential high value for a mobile shopper. The growing expanse of phones with NFC
(near field communication) could technically facilitate this.
The idea of a shopper near a product tapping their phone to be instantly connected to an expert on that product could, at the very
least, improve the in-store mobile shopping experience.
Some retailers, like Sears, have taken a step in that direction by allowing a mobile shoppers to see who is available by department,
send them a message and receive a phone call from that person a very short time later.
The obvious flaw is that the person calling back may not have the expertise needed by the shopper. But it
is a first step.
Much of the technology to link mobile shoppers to the relevant expertise already is around in various forms. The challenge is to overlay that onto legacy organizational
structures and systems.
As with many parts of mobile commerce, the technology itself is the relatively easy part.
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