Retailers Show Progress in mCommerce, Social Sharing, and Promotions

CrossView, Inc., a cross-channel commerce solutions and services provider, has released the results of its 2012 Cross-Channel Readiness survey that looked at retailers across a variety of categories, gauging improvements and declines in enabling customers to shop in-store, online, in call centers, and via mobile phones with a consistent brand experience.

This year’s study showed improvement in several key areas from last year, particularly in mobile commerce, social sharing and consistency in marketing promotions.

In an analysis of four touchpoints— online, in-store, call center and mobile—retailers could score up to 280 points, and those surveyed had a combined average of 177 points, with Best Buy achieving a perfect score. Other findings highlighted in a detailed report on the survey include:

• 92 percent of retailers enabled social sharing in their Web stores – up from 88 percent in 2011. 
• 79 percent of retailers offered the same marketing promotion across all touchpoints in 2012 – up from 65 percent in 2011.
• 72 percent of retailers offered ratings and reviews in their Web stores – a 39 percent rise year over year.

The most pronounced move was in the area of mobile commerce. In 2011, only 12 percent of retailers offered shoppers a mobile application for smartphones. This jumped to 56 percent in 2012.

"This year’s survey shows a steady beat of progress," said Mark Fodor, chief executive officer, CrossView.  "While the needle didn’t move terribly far, it registers in the right direction in a few key areas. What’s clear to us in our work with leading brands is that no touchpoint is viewed as a separate entity by consumers – each is an extension of the same brand. So, consistency is critical, fitting hand in glove with an effective cross-channel strategy."

Each retailer was evaluated via a mystery shopping approach. A variety of criteria were used, including consistency of pricing and promotions, access to customer profile information, merchandising, and, to the extent possible, overall parity of experience between touchpoints.

About CrossView 
CrossView is a provider of cross-channel commerce solutions and services that enable a personalized shopping experience with multi-platform solutions and services that unify the Web, stores, call centers, mobile devices, and other channels on a single, flexible platform.