As consumers migrate to smartphones, more retailers are rolling out new strategies that leverage customer engagement via mobile devices. One of these is check-in services, where the market opportunity is substantial.

A recent webinar titled, “Changing the Game in the Retail Store Through Your Own Branded Mobile Experience,” revealed that more retailers are investing in location-based marketing. The webinar discussed results from a Forrester Research survey which indicate that 114 million U.S. smartphone users employ check-in services. Forrester predicts that number will grow to 159 million by 2015. The webinar was sponsored by Digby, an Austin, Texas-based mobile platform solutions provider.

The following article is Part I of a two-part series covering Social Commerce: what it is, why it is important to the retail industry and how leading merchants are using it.  Part II will appear in the February 14 Newsletter.

As mobile technology and social media rapidly converge, retailers are faced with a seemingly infinite number of ways to unite with customers who are continually connected, browsing, comparing and buying.

This convergence has facilitated the development of the next evolution of online shopping: social commerce. Retailers selling through social media may generate as much as $3 billion in the U.S. by the end of 2012 ― but that’s loose change compared to the $14 billion projected by 2015. Worldwide, social commerce is expected to explode from $9 billion in 2012 to a whopping $30 billion by 2015, according to Booz & Company, a global management consulting firm.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday ― best known for glittering price offers and festively wrapped deals — attract gift-minded customers like a wreath to a front door. But these purchasers aren’t one-and-done shoppers: They’re cost-comparing and buying 24/7/365, clicking into their mobile phone apps and searching out the best deals wherever those deals happen to be. What’s more, these apps let shoppers save this price information for future reference.

What are shoppers finding with their new sleuthing technology? Between November 20^th and December 24^th, 2011, Gazaro analyzed a sample basket of 40 products in multiple categories that were expected to draw well on Black Friday/Cyber Monday and through the holiday season. Comparing the data to other months in 2011, Gazaro found that in68% of the cases, prices were actually lower in the months preceding Black Friday. 

When you really think about it, mobile technology has transformed just about every facet of our lives.  It has changed the way we communicate; when and how we access information; and how, when and where we shop.  With the vast number of mobile applications now available on any platform, today’s consumers can have information their way, wherever they are.

Nowhere have the implications of the mobility revolution been felt more than in the retail arena.  It’s estimated that mobile shopping could total $120 billion by the year 2015.  According to Gartner’s “Cool Vendors in Retail 2011” report, big retailers are continuing to focus on investments that enhance their ability to support a cross-channel selling environment. The combination of an innovative software application paired with more mature technologies, such as touchscreen-based kiosks and real-time analytics, is creating new ways to engage with increasingly connected shoppers.

Given the continued rapid growth of mobile device adoption, shoppers expect a stellar, mobile-optimized experience from the e-Commerce web sites they visit. Industry insiders note that whether or not a retailer intends to “go mobile,” it’s a natural progression for consumers to expect e-Commerce sites to be optimized for mobile devices. In fact, a recent Tealeaf survey found that 85% of mobile users expect sites to load at least as fast, if not faster, on their mobile devices. Frustrated by the lack of ease-of-use, shoppers often abandon non-mobile optimized web sites.

For retailers, there are significant obstacles to delivering this content and user experience, including huge pages, low bandwidth, poorly powered devices and network limitations.  The Strangeloop Mobile Site Optimizer is a front-end solution, available as either a service via the cloud or an appliance in the datacenter, designed to work around these obstacles to deliver pages up to 3.5 times faster, automatically.