Monday, June 01, 2015

Lessons From The Booming South Korean Mobile Market

Mobile commerce has a bright future ahead of it, and we are yet to see how to leverage its potential. When I talk about mobile commerce, I mostly talk about smartphones. Indeed, a lot of the data we have showing the spike of mobile commerce use also the tablet commerce, but to me, both are different. Smartphones are used to do  purchases while actually be on the move, whereas tablets are mostly used at home, replacing the usage of a computer.

I read this very interesting article of Mc Kinsey on some of the lessons you may have from the mobile retailing boom in South Korea. Obviously South Korea, land of Samsung, is one of the most connected country in the world. Therefore, mobile commerce has been flourishing, and people tend to use more mobiles than computers. 

Here are the 4 main insights:
1. Reach: Tap into the uniqueness of mobile-first consumers: Users of mobile retailing may have different profiles than your core target.
2. Curate: Trigger impulse purchases through well-crafted offers: Since it's harder to have long lists of products to see on a small screen, you need to adapt the navigation but also the number of SKUs you have. That could actually give a lift to specific retailers with another business model than the standard long tail most Emerchants have.
3. Entertain: Make shopping fun and easy, not just cheap
In contrast to the bargain-hunting mentality that pervades online, mobile
4. Lock in: Capture the loyalty of mobile shoppers early

What I like about the article is that it points out you need to deal with the mobile phone channel differently than you r Ecommerce presence, on all aspects:
  • Your product range deepness, in order to fit to a faster decision making process
  • The navigation, and the way people are looking at products. Actually there is a large opportunity into this one. As the article says, you may shop in a smaller number of mobile websites, which creates higher loyalty.
  • The way you deal with your customer relationship management
  • The way you may deliver: Probably proximity may be different while on the go than at home.