What it takes to win with mobile

Home Depot, Amazon.com and Safeway are tops when it comes to offering the best mobile commerce experience according to a new study that benchmarks 20 top U.S. retailers against one another.



According to the fifth annual “The Mobile Commerce Report 2015” from digital marketing/commerce solutions provider Episerver, Home Depot has the best overall mobile shopping experience by a wide margin among the universe of 20 companies surveyed. The consumer research showed Home Depot received especially high scores for its iPad app and Android phone experience, as well as its mobile strategy, and was ranked 10 percentage points higher than second ranked Amazon.com.



“Driven by intuitive search, navigation and content marketing features, Home Depot delivered a consistently strong approach to application design,” according to Episerver. “Even e-commerce giant suh as Amazon were unable to compete with the company’s seamless in-app chat and in-store collection services.”



In addition to top-ranked Home Depot, Amazon.com and Safeway, other top-ranked retailers included Target, Walgreens, Walmart and Kroger. (See full list and score below.)



Looking at broader mobile commerce trends, the study found e-commerce ranked as the fourth most common reason for using mobile devices, behind looking for directions, social networking and communicating with family/friends.



“The most common purchases for U.S. consumers was apparel, with 35% of Americans having purchased clothes on their device in the last six months. This was closely followed by music (31%) and digital products such as apps or videos (25%), according to Episerver.



Ironically, U.S. consumers are most likely to access mobile Web sites from their home, with 68% of Americans indicating home as the place they most commonly browse their smartphone, with the figure even higher for tablet users.



As if retailers didn’t know it already, the study’s authors said the findings, “further highlight the need for retailers to take a mobile first approach, with consumers increasingly shunning their laptops and home computers to shop on smartphone and tables instead.”



The research also revealed some common sense insights. For example, "speed and convenience" was cited by 46% of U.S. consumers surveyed as the number one reason why they browse products on a mobile device rather than using a PC or going into a brick and mortar store location. Sixty-three percent said they will abandon a mobile site if it proves difficult to access. Another 22% of respondents said that if a mobile site doesn't work they will go straight to a competitor to find an alternative. Additionally, 39% of U.S. respondents listed "physical stores" as one of their top three locations to browse a mobile device.



In general, U.S. retailer rankings fell drastically when it came to Android tablet applications, with very few retailers having a dedicated tablet app. Episerver analysis indicates this is likely related to Apple's dominance within the U.S. tablet market, causing many retailers to focus development efforts purely on iPad applications.



The top ranked retailers included:



RETAILER BENCHMARK SCORE



Home Depot 78.15%

Amazon.com 68.02%

Safeway 61.48%

Target 60.99%

Walgreens 59.88%

Walmart 59.51%

Kroger 56.54%

McDonalds 54.69%

Costco 54.07%

Apple Store 53.21%

CVS Health 52.84%

Best Buy 52.35%

Sears Holdings 50.86%

Lowe’s 49.88%

Macy’s 49.51%

Rite Aid 48.77%

H-E-B 27.90%

Publix 25.06%

TJ Maxx 24.07%

Royal Ahold 8.64%