SAN FRANCISCO – Retailers creating a mobile-optimized application or site should make sure that the check-out process has a minimal number of clicks to better accommodate consumers, per panelists at the Mobile Shopping Summit.

During the “Impending Disruptive Moments: Developing A Mobile Channel Strategy That Embraces Change” session, panelists discussed best practices for mobile payments. The panel was moderated by Jeff Pandolfe, business development manager at Amazon Payments.

“Mobile payments have to be fast,” said Mark Beccue, senior analyst of consumer mobility at ABI Research, Oyster Bay, NY. “The less clicks you have, the better.

“It all comes down to you making that purchase as easy as possible,” he said. “How do you let them store their credit card info in the best way and let them make that transaction as quickly as possible.”

Consumer relationship
According to Mr. Beccue, what is going to drive near field communication is the ability do high customer relationship management.

“You have the ability to have a very rich ongoing relationship with consumers,” Mr. Beccue said.
Mike Dupuis, vice president of ecommerce at The Children’s Place, Pittsburgh, said that any interaction by mobile contributes to consumer engagement and purchase intent.

“Anything that leverages the mobile channel to drive engagement is definitely going to drive that purchase intent,” Mr. Dupuis said.

According to Mr. Dupuis, retailers looking to enter the mobile space should focus on creating a mobile site first.

Then, they can focus on mobile apps.

“The barrier to entry on mobile Web is still very low,” Mr. Dupuis said. “You need to make sure that you’re designing that experience around a sustainable hook.

“It would be challenging to retailers to go down the app space if they’re distracted by how many mobile app downloads they have,” he said.

Amazon lets consumers buy products via one click

Test and learn
The executive said that it is also important to take an audit of a company’s current mobile site and see how it performs.

Companies need to test when it comes to their mobile properties.

If something does not work on a mobile site or application, the consumer is no longer going to engage with that company.

It is important to continue to test and learn.

Companies should also focus on the return on investment.

“I actually think that telling an ROI story on mobile—whether it’s marketing initiatives or customer initiatives, is pretty straight forward,” Mr. Dupuis said.

“The organizations I’ve been in are almost tired of hearing these ridiculous ROI stories,” he said.

Mr. Dupuis also said that near field communication is going to be a key in the future and companies should definitely begin to look at how NFC will change mobile.

“NFC is exciting,” Mr. Dupuis said. “It’s also going to be an enormous cost.

“I think incrementally, it ties back to the CRM point,” he said. “You have to look at the customer before and after.”

Final Take
Rimma Kats is staff reporter on Mobile Commerce Daily, New York