Expert advice to help you sell more this holiday season

Why You Need to Read This Guide

During the 2013 Black Friday shopping period, U.S. retailers left almost $16B in mobile
commerce on the table. The size of this missed revenue is surprising, given that mobile
traffic on Black Friday accounted for 39.7 percent of all online traffic, and the consumer
appetite for holiday spending keeps getting larger each year.
This disparity stems from companies not fully meeting consumer shopping expectations
regarding the use of mobile devices to search, browse, and buy.

Many retailers are still unclear on exactly what actions can be taken to get the most out
of this mobile opportunity and ensure maximum revenue growth during this all-important
period. Mobile projects are hampered by internal resourcing limitations, technological
barriers, conflicting projects, and competing priorities.
This definitive guide offers strategic advice for online retailers about accelerating
mobile development to make a meaningful difference in your companys
performance during the 2014 holiday shopping period.
During the 2013 Black
Friday shopping period,
U.S. retailers left $16B
of mobile commerce
on the table.
2
Introduction
Why Mobile Matters More in 2014
Web-enabled mobile devices have already fundamentally changed
the way consumers shop online. Many e-commerce companies are
already seeing from 20 to 45 percent of their total site traffic
coming from mobile devices.
This mobile growth curve continues to accelerate. According to
Goldman Sachs, mobile sales are projected to reach $204 billion
in 2014, hitting $626 billion in 2018.
By 2018, web sales on smartphones and tablets alone will
comprise nearly all web sales from todays computing devices.
The 2013 holiday shopping season proved that consumers are
ready and willing to spend big money on purchases via their mobile
devices. The research clearly indicates that online sellers should
prepare for another record-breaking shopping season in 2014.
Its not just smartphone shopping, either; more people are
using tablets for their online purchases. The sheer volume of
transactions conducted on tablets during the 2013 holiday season
took analysts completely by surprise. As the chart on the next page
makes clear, tablet adoption rates are growing much faster than
the online retail industry anticipated.
The opportunity across both device families is tremendous. Yet
many retailers are relying on rudimentary mobile initiatives to drive
results, and they have no clear plan for capturing mobile market
share during the holiday period ahead.
3
Did you know?

Mobile traffic on Black Friday

accounted for 39.7 percent of all
online traffic, an increase of 34
percent over 2012. (source: IBM
2013 Black Friday Report)

Mobile sales accounted for 22

percent of all online sales on Black
Friday in 2013, up 43 percent from
2012. (source: IBM 2013 Black
Friday Report)

A study that examined mobile

shopping activity across 20
retailers during Thanksgiving and
Black Friday in 2013 found that,
compared with 2012 figures, total
mobile visits increased by 93
percent, overall mobile
transactions increased 219
percent, and total revenue from
mobile transactions increased by
368 percent. (source: CMO.com)
That being said, getting to market with a compelling mobile shopping experience is a
challenge that can be solved in time for this holiday season.
There is still enough time for you to take action that will result in a decisive boost in your
mobile conversion rates by the time Black Friday comes around.
Mobile Optimization: The Best Way to Prepare for Black Friday 2014
Tempting as it might be for you to make drastic changes and rebuild your companys
website, now is not the time to focus on such a resource-intensive effort.
It makes much more sense to focus on conversion optimization, especially for mobile
customers.
If you double down on conversion optimization early, you gain a double benefit: the
guarantee of a better-performing site, plus an investment in conversion optimization
practices that you can integrate into a website redesign project later.
4
Source: Katy Huberty, Ehud Gelblum, Morgan Stanley Research. Gartner. Data as of 4/13.
With so much opportunity on the table but just a few months
to go the big question remains: What can you do in the near
term to have a meaningful impact on mobile holiday sales?
To help you on the path to clear action and great results,
weve broken down this guide into two main sections:
In Part One, we recommend four mobile optimization projects
you can complete before Black Friday:
Launch a mobile-optimized shopping experience
(if you dont already have one).
Optimize your existing mobile shopping experience
for conversion.
Double down on mobile performance.
Execute a lean tablet optimization plan.
In Part Two, we pose the question Which is best: tackling
a mobile-optimization project internally, or working with an
external vendor? Well discuss the key questions for
determining whether working with an external vendor
makes sense.
For situations where working with an external vendor is the right
option, we present the common selection criteria for choosing one.
5
Did you know?
According to IBMs 2013 Cyber Monday
Report:

By Cyber Monday, the conversion rate

on tablets was three times that of
smartphones, with tablets at 5.4
percent and smartphones at 1.8
percent.

The iPad was by far the preferred

mobile device for online sales, bringing
in $417 million in sales over the course
of Thanksgiving Thursday and Black
Friday and 10 percent of all online sales
on Cyber Monday.

Tablets drove 14.4 percent of all online

sales between Black Friday and Cyber
Monday double that of smartphones.
6
PART ONE
COUNTING DOWN:
WHAT YOU CAN DO
BEFORE BLACK FRIDAY
PART ONE
Counting Down: What You Can Do Before
Black Friday
Here are several projects you can undertake now that will have a dramatic improvement on
your websites holiday shopping performance. Depending on the state of your current mobile
shopping experience, there are several projects you can undertake now that will have a
dramatic improvement on your websites holiday shopping performance.
Before choosing the kind of project youd like to kick off before the holiday season, consider
forming an internal mobile project team with representatives from relevant departments.
Youll gain a better understanding of the scope of each project, assistance in determining
which ones could potentially be handled by the company before November, and valuable
support building consensus across the organization.
Launch a Mobile-Optimized Shopping Experience
By now, it should come as no surprise that not having a mobile-optimized website is costing
your business a tremendous amount of lost business. All you have to do is dig into your
analytics to understand the scope of the opportunity: How much of your traffic is currently
coming from mobile devices? What is your current conversion rate from mobile devices?
7
A decent home page, category page, shopping cart, and checkout flow
will get you a long way toward converting mobile customers.
Just remember: youll need a minimum of three months to add full mobile functionality to your
existing website. Keep the focus tightly on the search browse buy path of your customers.
For this project, if you dont have any previous experience working with mobile initiatives, the
path of least resistance will be to work with a mobile vendor. Getting up to speed on and
then deploying contemporary mobile best practices before the holiday season begins is
definitely a risky endeavor.
Optimize Your Existing Mobile Shopping Experience for Conversion
Mobile users expect to be able to do anything and everything on their mobile device that
they can do from a desktop. They also expect to achieve their goals on a mobile device in
a way that provides a pleasant, easy-to-use experience.
Optimizing for conversion simplifies the mobile shopping experience for your customers.
Unnecessary taps, swipes, or keystrokes can result in users abandoning a task because
it's simply too annoying to complete from their device. If they run into even one or two
stumbling blocks across the site, their perception is that the site as a whole is difficult
to use.
Here are four ways you can start optimizing your existing mobile shopping experience today:
Analyze current mobile experience: Try identifying mobile customer experience
barriers by comparing the bounce rate and pages per visit between desktop and
various mobile device types. Also, put yourself in the shoes of one of your customers
try using the site in a location where your connection is likely to be unpredictable. You'll
notice that things you were willing to forgive while sitting at a desk in the office become
exasperating while waiting in line at the coffee shop.
Optimize navigation: Use analytics to understand how mobile users are browsing your
website. If there are common pages or features they are using the most (e.g. a store
locator), be sure to place links to them prominently in navigation menus. Sites that
streamline the structure of navigation elements and include highly visible search
8
functionality will perform much better than
those that have only ported desktop navigation
over for smaller screens.
Optimize forms: Since its more difficult to
input data on a software keyboard, minimize the
number of typing tasks required on your
website. This can make a big difference in
reducing shopping cart abandonment rates.
Implement mobile A/B testing: While many retailers are running continuous A/B
testing programs on their desktop sites, mobile has not received the same treatment.
Fortunately, mobile A/B testing isn't particularly different or difficult, and with such low
starting conversion rates on mobile devices, the gains you stand to make can be
significant.
Test CTAs, button placement, checkout flows, navigation, forms everything. Its crucial
to kick off a mobile multivariate testing program as soon as possible, to ensure that youre
putting your best foot forward when it really counts: when traffic starts to spike.
Double Down on Mobile Performance
Whether you are struggling to get your mobile presence in place or you currently have the
best mobile shopping experience around, there is always room for conversion-boosting
performance improvements.
Images: The number one performance enhancement you can make is to your websites
images. Images make up the majority of the visual "weight" of a page. If your platform
doesn't automatically size images according to device type, you run the risk of
displaying large images that take far too long to download. Discuss current image
optimization techniques with your web team, and ensure that your website is delivering
the visual assets at the highest quality and in the fastest possible time.
Combat poor network conditions: Its likely that youre already investing heavily in
creating a high performing website for desktop customers. However, poor network
conditions can nullify all of that effort by making your site appear to perform slowly on
mobile devices. Consider building or buying predictive intelligence tools that pre-
9
Make forms as short as possible
download resources for subsequent pages in your customers journey. Even when the
customer is subject to poor network conditions, your site will still download faster than
your current baseline. Remember, anything you do to boost performance will have a
measurable impact on conversions!
Execute a Lean Tablet Optimization Plan
As the data at the beginning of this guide indicates, tablets are likely to play a big part in this
years holiday shopping period. To make sure you capture the most from the opportunity, you
first need to make sure that you have removed all usability blockers for tablet customers.

A standard desktop site provides only a mediocre experience on a tablet. A typical 12pixel
font is too small. Buttons are hard to tap. Lengthy form inputs drive people away. Links get
tapped accidentally. And some site features, like hovers, dont work at all.
Executing your tablet optimization plan means implementing improvements that make your
website feel like it belongs on a tablet and is responsive to the common interaction patterns
of tablet users. Make sure that you are supplying a full-featured experience on a device that
is used in a distinctly nontraditional way. Users swipe, prod, rotate, and hold their tablets in
both portrait and landscape orientations actions that dont make sense in a desktop
environment.
10
11
PART TWO
BALANCING TIME
AND MONEY:
WHEN TO WORK WITH
A MOBILE VENDOR
PART TWO
Balancing Time and Money: When to Work
with a Mobile Vendor
In most e-commerce organizations, multiple teams work on different projects concurrently to
drive increased revenue. While this is generally a good thing, adding new projects into the
pipeline can be difficult.
Unfortunately, when it comes to the holiday shopping period, there are no flexible deadlines:
the date is king. When Black Friday rolls around, millions of consumers will suddenly turn to
their devices and start shopping, regardless of how prepared your company is.
When Does it Make Sense to Work with a Mobile Vendor?
Factoring in planning, development, testing, and optimizing, there barely seems enough time
to get everything done before the holiday shopping begins.
Working with a mobile vendor allows you to expand the capacity of your team to fulfill key
objectives before the inevitable code freeze. To figure out whether to work with a mobile
vendor, ask yourself one simple question:
Do we have the internal bandwidth
to deal with mobile right now?
If the answer is no, its time to start looking around for external help. Realistically, it makes
good business sense to work with a mobile vendor if you need to skip the internal juggling,
get a project ramped up as quickly as possible, and guarantee delivery in time.
12
Eight Key Questions for Evaluating Mobile Vendors
With such a brief time period remaining before the holidays, its crucial to choose a mobile
vendor that will not only get you to the finish line before the season kicks off, but will also
continue to help you drive success well into next year and beyond.
Here are the eight main criteria you should look for when engaging a mobile vendor:
1. Can they guarantee project delivery?
As articulated in the previous section: Black Friday waits for no one! Time to market is
critical in this case. Does the vendor have a proven track record of delivering projects on
time and on budget?
2. Are they an expert in mobile commerce?
When working with an external vendor, its always important to manage risk, as well as to
open the door for future strategic growth and innovation. Be sure to work with a mobile
vendor with a proven track record in m-commerce.
3. Does the technology scale to multiple platforms, especially tablets?
A mobile vendors platform should easily scale to different device families. In the current
market, that means scaling to smartphones when you have a tablet-optimized site, and
vice versa.
Technologies that fracture domains into m.example.com for mobile devices and
t.example.com for tablets require complex technical work to let users on different
platforms navigate among devices. This situation often result in mobile dead ends
or incorrect redirects. Instead, opt for technologies that use a single URL to serve
all devices: desktops, smartphones, and tablets.
4. Do they leverage your existing website features?
A worst-case scenario is having to work with a vendor to rebuild website features from
scratch to make them work on a mobile site. Instead, look for a vendor that allows you to
bring your current rich website features designed for desktop over to mobile without
getting bogged down in rebuilding them.
13
5. Do they integrate with your existing marketing toolkit, including A/B
testing?
The holiday shopping period represents a huge opportunity to drive the ROI of your
existing marketing toolkit. Use a mobile vendor that will boost the ROI of email marketing,
personalization services, A/B testing services, social media marketing, and advertising by
letting you use your existing services and measure the results.
6. Is their technology secure?
The privacy and security of your customers personal and financial information is
paramount. Maximize security by choosing a mobile solution that does not transmit or
store customer information.
7. Does their technology prioritize speed?
Mobile performance is an element that often gets overlooked in favor of some of the
more visual enhancements that can be made to the customer shopping experience.
However, during the holiday shopping period, there are so many websites with so many
deals that customers are less likely to be discriminating about mobile design and more
likely to simply leave if a site takes too long to load. Although your existing performance
technology does guarantee some mobile performance gains, consider working with a
vendor that has mobile-specific performance technologies (such as combating cellular
network latency).
8. Are they aligned with your web strategy?
More and more online retailers are moving toward responsive web design as the
backbone to their multiscreen web strategy. Look for a mobile vendor that can navigate
from your current website to the future direction of your web strategy.
14
Thinking of working with a mobile vendor?
See how ideeli, Garmin, Crocs, and Beyond the Rack did it!
Is Your E-Commerce Site Ready?
There is no question that the 2014 holiday shopping numbers will outpace last years record-
setting numbers. As mobile traffic drives ever closer to overtaking desktop traffic, online
retailers must provide a compelling mobile shopping experience or risk being left behind.
Consumers are ready to spend their money, and they are already thinking ahead to the
holidays. Is your organization prepared to make the most of this opportunity?
To learn more about how your organization can prepare for the holiday shopping season,
please visit www.mobify.com/contact, and well connect you with a mobile expert to discuss
your mobile project. Want more information? Take a look at our 2014 Mobile E-Commerce
Strategy Playbook or find us on Twitter at @Mobify.
15
16
Mobify is a responsive e-commerce optimization platform
used by leading Fortune 500 and Internet Retailer 500
companies to drive hundreds of millions of dollars in mobile
revenue everyyear.
On average, Mobify customers see a 42 percent lift in
conversion rates and a 54 percent improvement in revenue.