Study: Consumers shop via mobile, are retailers ready?

Retailers recognize the importance of mobile, but haven’t necessarily moved to keep up with it.

According to a new study from messaging software provider Quiq, 65% of surveyed retailers said mobile technology has increased their sales revenue. Respondents said that on average, 42% of sales are made through mobile devices such as smartphones.  

While 37% of respondents have integrated mobile into the holistic customer experience (buying, communicating, and in-store interactions), the majority (54%) admitted that they’re not fully prepared to meet consumer demands for mobile. About 25% admitted they are still in the early stages or have no mobile strategy at all.  

The study also examined retailer attitudes toward social media. Findings include:

• Eighty-eight percent of respondents said that Facebook is important to their marketing and sales strategy, followed by Instagram (80%) and Twitter (69%). Almost two-thirds (64%) are communicating with customers on Instagram and 61% on Facebook Messenger. 
• Retailers also said that mobile is uniquely benefitting customer relationships, with 74% agreeing it has made them more accessible to customers and 66% reporting that it provides higher customer satisfaction. 
• Fifty-six percent of respondents said they communicate with consumers over text messaging and 46% over Android iMessage and Apple’s Messages.

In addition, the study found that most retailers (52%) use a combination of bots and humans to interact with consumers. Just 9% of respondents said they only use bots, and 39% rely solely on humans. Thirty-three percent of respondents (and 75% of mobile-first respondents) currently support customer service on smart speakers, with half of planning to deploy such technology this year. 

The study was conducted for Quiq in November 2019 by Sapio Research and surveyed 205 senior executives who work in retail organizations with 100 or more employees.