10 tips for holiday mobile commerce planning

July 9, 2009

Steve Timpson is chief operating officer of Siteminis

By Steve Timpson

The holiday season is upon us -- at least it is if you are in the business of selling stuff.

With the planning cycle for retail products and consumable goods already knee-deep in preparation for this 2009 holiday, traditional practices to secure share of voice in the market are going off with all the military precision that current budgets allow. Media buys are in place for the most part, products have been ordered and store planning is getting the final planograms put together.

However, what about the new opportunities becoming available in the mobile space? What are you and your company doing with the approaching festive holiday season to capture more share of wallet through your customer's mobile phone?

I have been through many meetings this year with companies that range from the Fortune 500 to those of lesser status. As a result, I have come up with this short punch list of suggestions that may help tighten up a mobile commerce strategy.

If you are in charge of significantly influencing your company's mobile strategy, I recommend that you revisit the budget that you have for the fourth quarter.

Yes, it's been a tough year, but I have seen many of the budgets slashed to next to nothing for the mobile teams.

The common commentary I hear from IT, marketing and merchandising executives is "Let's try to budget something for 2010" or "I want something that has zero risk on our side."

Although there are still some things that can get done, usually nothing near-term or long-term strategically is usefully accomplished in this scenario. However, if you have any budget at all, there are still some things that you can do.

Additionally, you must have clarity as to what you are trying to accomplish with your mobile efforts.

If your Internet strategy includes a commerce element, then your mobile efforts should reflect that to some degree.

Now this can take several forms, from the simple -- basic mobile optimized landing pages that market some product or events that must be accessed only through the classically ported wired Web site or from a visit to your store locations -- to the complex, including an actual mobile commerce site that allows the customer to purchase through the use of their mobile phone.

This must be thoughtfully done as one nice thing about Internet-based selling is that you can try many things and change quickly with minimal-impacted costs, as compared to those costs that are incurred when trying out new merchandising and marketing approaches in the traditional sense -- store resets and hard media buys, for example.

Questions at planning stage
Here are some things to reflect on when putting the plan together that leverages your costs. Do I want to approach just my core customer base or do I want to expand the base?

This line of questioning sounds like a no brainer -- everybody wants to take market share -- but the answer will change your approach shot slightly as this will affect your marketing costs and subsequently your budget.

For example, just leaching on to all print, radio and TV advertising with a byline about the mobile site, using existing customer email databases and posting aggressively on the wired Web landing pages are low-cost impacts. Developing a bolder, more aggressive SMS text campaign will cost more.

Do you approach the mobile commerce from a downloadable application strategy, WAP or WWW position? Each one of these will work in the mobile space. Each has its own unique set of challenges.

The download limits your customer's access as it depends on the type of phone or operating system.

WAP works across multiple platforms but limits robustness of the mobile experience. WWW may have a tendency to cost more to implement as this is truly a two-site approach, but does give your mobile site multi-mobile platform usage -- more customers can use it as it is independent of operating system or phone type -- and gives the user a great mobile experience.

Based on the means at your disposal, this will be the second thing you need to decide. How deep do I want to make my mobile site?

This question is really affected by how far you have come in the development of mobile site. If you are fairly far down the road, then you may wish to expand the depth of your site by adding things such as games and "Ask the expert."

If you are just getting your mobile sites published, you may want to additionally expose maps to your locations, capture new customer emails or SMS opt-ins for special buys and events, and a section for coupons and information that leads a customer back to the wired Web site or the retail store.

The top 10
In the end, here are some key things to consider on your mobile commerce site.

1. Does the landing page reflect the feel of my wired Web page? Does the brand pop, are the colors the same, and are the basic headlines or features matching?

2. Do you have a way to capture your customers email accounts if they want more information?

3. Do you have a way to get them to opt in for any SMS interfaces?

4. If you are not currently doing actual sales through the mobile phone, have you looked at adding a wish list instead? It will give your customer the ability to send their gift ideas to others.

5. Does your site have a store locator and mapping feature?

6. Do you have specials that you can offer just your mobile customers? This is a great way to measure effect for future budget discussions.

7. Is your site tagged on all company advertising? This is especially important if you are not using the company URL for your mobile efforts.

8. If your site is using banner advertising to some degree? Do you require your advertisers to have solid optimized pages to maintain the professionalism of your mobile site?

9. Can your customers read easily the text on your mobile site? This is quite important with the aging of the population.

10. Do you have a way to measure your mobile site's effect compared to the classic wired Web site?

The above list assumes that if you are actually selling goods on the mobile phone, you have a solid shopping cart, the ability to keep pricing in parity with the ecommerce site, the ability to take payment forms similar to the ecommerce site and the ability to correctly cost out freight and taxes.

The holiday season is a great time of year for family and friends. However, it always creates havoc and stress on those lucky individuals who have to make sales plans that get heavily weighted in the fourth quarter.

This year will be a nail-biter with the economy the way it is, but there lies the opportunity.

Do not get caught unawares in the mobile space without a solid plan to accomplish something meaningful and measurable, be it collecting customer emails or impacting real sales through your product positioning.

And always, always be looking to get your mobile site's Web address marketed and in front of your current and future customers.

Steve Timpson is chief operating officer of mobile site developer Siteminis Inc., Atlanta. Reach him at .