The company partnered with Usablenet on the mobile initiative. The HTML5 mobile site makes it easier for consumers to search the full inventory of wines, champagne, beers, spirits and soft drinks.

“The strategy was to create an optimized mobile experience that specifically caters to the Majestic Wine customer,” said Carin Van Vuuren, chief marketing officer of Usablenet.

“Majestic was seeing more and more customers accessing their website via mobile over the last year, and needed to ensure that these increasingly mobile customers was having a successful experience engaging with their brand, regardless of the type of device they have on their hands,” she said.

That’s the spirit
In addition to the 15 percent increase in mobile traffic, Majestic Wine also saw visits to its “Find a Store” pages increase by 60 percent.

The mobile site features expandable menus, image galleries and incorporates geolocation.

Additionally, consumers can share their favorite products with friends and family using social sharing options such as Facebook and Twitter.

In addition to browsing the company’s entire inventory via the mobile site, consumers can also write personal reviews, as well as read customer and staff reviews.

Consumers can also order cases, mixed cases, gifts, beers, spirits and accessories with delivery and mail order options pending customer location.

The mobile site also features product information that lets consumers narrow down their choice.

Majestic Wine customers can also browse special offers by Top 10, regions or special features.

The store locator feature helps them find the nearest store to browse products in-person.

“We work with brands to create not just a mobile-optimized site but a mobile optimized experience that creates value for both the consumer and the business,” Ms. Van Vuuren said. “With Majestic Wine, we focused on usability from a performance and UI/UX perspective, and delivered a successful experience that resulted in an increase in traffic (up 15% in mobile visits), and also a 60% increase to the store finder pages.

“The results show that when a site is properly optimized, it positively impacts not just the online business, but also the bricks and mortar business by driving people to the store – further illustrating mobile’s influence in bridging the online and offline worlds,” she said.

Smart move
A mobile site is a smart move for Majestic Wine.

Consumers are increasingly using their mobile device to make purchases. Therefore, marketers should make sure that they can provide optimized content to on-the-go consumers.

“Consumers are increasingly demanding a seamless mobile shopping experience, and brands have recognized the necessity of delivering on this expectation,” Ms. Van Vuuren said.

“Moving forward, we expect to see more of an emphasis to synchronize mobile with the in-store experience,” she said. “We also expect to see deeper integration with social sites like Pinterest, Facebook, and other popular networks as brands better align the mobile experience with social activities.  The key here is deepening the engagement between brands and consumers by creating a true multichannel experience.”

Final Take

Rimma Kats is associate editor on Mobile Commerce Daily, New York