Mobile’s role continues to grow in driving online commerce as well as in-store engagements. Much of the focus this year will be on beacons and Wi-Fi, the next generation of mobile Web sites and applications as well as other strategies for leveraging mobile throughout the entire path to purchase.

Mobile Marketer’s May Yeung spoke to exhibitors and asked them the question, “What is the biggest difference in mobile commerce/retail in 2015 compared with previous years?” Here is what they had to say:

Chris Wayman, chief client officer at HelloWorld, Pleasant Ridge, MI
I think the biggest difference is that mobile commerce results from November/December, we are off the charts. I think marketers have known that this was coming so we considerably see more investment pouring in. In addition, to them trying to mobilize optimize the shopping experience. For example, they’re now trying to figure out how do we bring loyalty/rewards/promotions in that overall experience. And how do we marry online, Web, mobile Web with app experiences together.

We think royalty and rewards is a big opportunity and probably one of the biggest opportunities for brands to drive acquisitions and higher spends from the individuals.

Greg Nelson, account development at Urban Airship, Portland, OR
I think the biggest difference is that a lot of commerce’s are being done on mobile phones, where in the past it was predominately done on a desktop but now with everyone having smartphones. It has taken it one step further, since it’s in your hands at all times, so you see more of a shift towards mobile application purchases or mobile website purchases.

Michael Johnson, senior account executive at Evergage, Somerville, MA
The biggest trend in mobile 2015 is companies are really innovating with app experiences as oppose to mobile Web. And we are engaging with their customers and personalizing their experience in app.

Steve Gunnell, enterprise sales manager at Listrak, Lititz, PA
In my opinion is the migration to mobile responses to sites and the need for responsive design in both email marketing and in email acquisition.

You’re going to see the need to have a good experience for users and customers on tablets and phones with regards to them submitting their contact information so you can tribute that and bring them to your sites. I think that wasn’t the initiative in previous years but you’re really seeing people make the transition and making that happen in 2015. You see that in the change of people upgrading their ecommerce platforms so you seeing a lot of people not just re-skinning but re-platforming to platforms that can handle the mobile optimization experience.

Brad Wallans, business development manager at comosoft, Frisco, TX
The biggest difference is that mobile is growing fast. It is huge and on the up swing. We’re pushing our content out to mobile more frequently than we ever had in the past.

Peter Wells, digital marketing expert and global sales leader at Certona, San Diego, CA
We believe at Certona, consumers or becoming more and more comfortable with using smartphones and tablets to engage with brands to do not only browsing but also buy things online. What we’re seeing across our 600 clients are actually is much as 40 percent or 50 percent visitors are coming from mobile devices and as much as 20/25 percent sales are occurring on mobile devices which clearly indicates is becoming more a material part of people’s business. And most people have to really think about planning for that.

Ram Parthasarathy, product manager at Monetate, Conshohocken, PA
In 2014, people started looking at products but they don’t buy on mobile phones. But with new and bigger mobile phones like iPhones 6 and large screens, people starting buy on mobile devices. That is huge change. The conversion rates in mobile are growing.

Gerald Dahar, president and CE of Speedeon Data, Cleveland, OH
I think it’s fairly obvious, it is pretty clear the trend is here to stay, the trend is your friend. Everybody is moving towards mobile device. It is fairly straightforward. There’s a lot of activities, a lot of actions on mobile, a lot of marketing on mobile, and it is incredible meaning platform to marketers.

Talia Shani, director of marketing at YOTPO, Tel Aviv, Israel
The biggest difference in mobile in 2015 is that people are looking for the full experience now on mobile. They don’t want a cut down site, they want to see the same thing they’re going to see on PC or laptop. And so for us it’s really important  to show reviews on mobile because people are making purchases there and they need that there in their decision making process.

Justin Hypes, director of global enterprise sales at Leanplum, San Francisco
I think one obvious difference is the amount of funds being put into by retailers through traditional brick-and-mortars, but from my perspective being that Leanplum is an A/B Testing analytics and marking automations company, we’re seeing a huge uptake in the amount of companies that are wanting more granular analytics. What’s users behavior? How are they interacting with their app? So they’re investing way more money into understanding user behavior.