When the frenzy of holiday shopping 2011 begins later this month, it could be the year for the mobile client.
A record number of consumers will buy from their mobile devices in the future season, as projected by IBM Coremetrics, which studies the online data from 500 leading U.S. retailers. And retailers who seek to exploit this trend will be forced to adapt.
"It's going to play a big part of how consumers are buying this holiday," said John Squire, chief strategy officer for Coremetrics IBM, in an interview. "Mobile users have less patience. They are surgical shoppers. Retailers are going to have to do a really good job in targeting their messages and promotions for mobile users."
A mobile device shopper spends an average of about 4 minutes on a site while in a little over seven minutes, he visited the site on a regular computer.
Mobile clients also tend to do less browsing and see fewer products in their act, making it imperative for retailers to customize the messages and content to serve to visitors.
Among retailers that have won awards to address mobile users are department stores Macy Inc., Nordstrom Inc. and JC Penney Co. All have launched apps based on streamlined pages specifically for mobile use, and fast downloads, designed as an alternative to conventional Web browsing, Squire said.
As an illustration of their online and mobile strategy having paid some dividends, the department store group posted above the average of 20% of online sales growth every month this year so far. Squire added: "Retailers that saw these trends early have made some good bets and investments."
For the first time, the percentage of shoppers buying from their mobile phones is expected to rise above the double-digit threshold to 15% in November, compared to 4.5% in last year's holiday season, and less than 1% in 2009, Squire said.
In October, 9.6% of online shoppers purchased via their mobile devices up from 3.4% a year earlier.
It is not only department stores that are catching on. The boards of directors of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Home Depot Inc., Gap Inc. and Victoria's Secret parent Limited Brands Inc. have been ramping efforts to expand sales online and mobile.
Sears Holdings Corp said earlier this week that its namesake department stores and discount chain Kmart launched mobile "trading walls" located in high traffic areas, such as cinemas, airports and bus stations.
Greater use of mobile purchases has also added pressure on retailers including electronics giant Best Buy Co. for comparison consumers to shop from their mobile devices while shopping.
Retailers have also been more active arming their employees with iPads or other tablet devices to provide buyers with better service. Sears, for example, began using iPad and iPod Touch devices in the deployment of some 450 of its Sears and Kmart stores to help customers to control inventory, have access to product information and order products online.
In the mobile world, retailers may want to place more attention on the iPad users. About 6.8% of October site visits through the iPad concluded with a purchase, compared to a 3.6% rate on other mobile devices, Squire said.
Online sales in November are expected to increase from 12% to 15% this year, IBM estimated. For comparison, the National Retail Federation has planned total holiday sales to increase by 2.8%.
Social networks, led by Facebook, are also a factor emerging in the retail trade. According to IBM more than 9.2% of consumers in October coming to a retailer's site from a social media site made a purchase, compared to 5.5% wwho visited the site of the store directly.
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