Content-Powered Commerce to Go Best practices for delivering content-powered commerce to mobile fashion shoppers

1 The content-powered mobile commerce experience has arrived. eCommerce is fast becoming mobile commerce. 53.3 percent of the nearly 3,500 US consumers responding to a recent survey said they’d used a mobile device to help them complete their most recent purchases.1 What’s more, 34.8 percent of consumers used mobile devices to gain loyalty credit in April 2020—up from 26.8 percent in April 2019.1 Experts believe that as the global pandemic continues to impact the market, both online shopping and mobile commerce will continue to grow.

This is especially true for the fashion and apparel industry, in which eCommerce makes up 38.6 percent of all sales. Fashion and apparel companies—especially those appealing to a younger demographic—are investing in rich content and experiences like augmented reality (AR). And they are building content-powered commerce experiences specifically for mobile devices. We believe this will be a profitable strategy, given that almost nine out of ten Gen Z and millennial consumers (87 percent) have made a smartphone purchase or payment.2

This eBook53.3 looks at best practices for designing and delivering a mobile, content-powered commerce experience for fashion and apparel businesses.

of consumers used a mobile device 53.3% to help complete their most recent purchases

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70 Mobile commerce is fast becoming the new norm According to a recent World Economic Report,3 the five key 56.4% functional drivers of 5G will support The percentage of consumers who the following functionality: reported making their most recent retail purchases online rose from • Enhanced mobile broadband 41.8 in 2019 to 56.4 in 2020.1 • Ultra-reliable low latency communication % 72.1 • Security More consumers reported using mobile devices to help them shop at brick-and- • Massive machine-type mortar shops in 2020 than in 2019—up communications from 49.6 percent to 72.1 percent.1 • Power efficiency

For fashion and apparel merchants, 7.6% this means they will be able to The number of consumers who deliver more sophisticated content used their mobile phones to look up experiences to their mobile coupons and discounts increased by shoppers, powered by technologies 7.6 percent between 2019 and 2020.1 like artificial intelligence (AI) 66.2% and AR. The percentage of bridge (older) millennials who used mobile devices to pay for their most recent purchases.1

3 Mobile commerce is critical to online holiday sales Adobe Analytics found that $142.5 billion was spent online during the 2019 holiday shopping season, marking a 13.1 percent year-over-year increase. The primary driver of this growth was smartphones. Mobile drove nearly 84 percent of all online sales for the holiday shopping period.4

$142.5 billion 84% was spent online during the 2019 of all online sales for the holiday holiday shopping season shopping period were driven by mobile

4 Traditional mobile development—responsive web design vs. native apps

Most fashion and apparel companies deliver mobile eCommerce in one of two ways: responsive web design or native apps. Both have well-known benefits and drawbacks, and neither is an ideal solution when you’re trying to provide a content-rich experience to customers with limited access to Wifi and fast cellular connections.

Responsive web design—one size fits all Advantages Disadvantages

• One set of code works with all • “Desktop first” designs may not web browsers. meet mobile users’ expectations.

• Many low- and no-code tools • Responsive web designs typically exist to accelerate responsive cannot access smartphone features page development. like the camera, microphone,

• Responsive page development and GPS. is generally faster than building • Responsive sites can take a long time mobile apps. to load on mobile devices, especially when a Wifi connection is limited.

Responsive web design is generally faster to build and works across browsers, but mobile apps offer powerful customization and more precise control

5 Native apps—powerful customization Native apps are built for specific mobile operating systems. They must be downloaded and installed on a mobile device. For fashion and apparel companies, they represent a powerful way to customize the eCommerce experience for valued customers—and deliver advanced features like virtual fitting rooms.

Advantages Disadvantages

• Native apps can blend smartphone • Development often takes longer features like the camera, compared to responsive web design. microphone, and location tracking • Maintaining multiple apps for into the customer experience. different operating systems is costly • You can more precisely control and labor-intensive. the look and feel of the • Lengthy downloads can be customer experience. frustrating, especially for customers • Performance may be better in in locations with limited bandwidth. low-bandwidth environments. • Native apps can be “bandwidth hogs,” consuming significant amounts of cellular data for downloads and while running in the background.

6 PWAs—a new approach to mobile commerce

Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) from Magento Commerce represent a new approach to mobile development with unique benefits for fashion and apparel companies. At a high level, PWAs combine the flexibility of responsive web design with a rich, app-like interface to deliver an app experience in a web browser. PWAs offer substantial benefits for mobile commerce over both responsive web design and native apps.

Richer content with an app-like experience Although PWAs are viewed through a browser-like responsive design, they can access smartphone functions like the camera, push notifications, GPS, etc. This provides more options for interactivity and highly targeted, content-powered commerce. For example, customers could receive push notifications regarding an abandoned shopping cart. And shoppers could use their smartphone’s camera to upload a selfie to a virtual fitting room.

PWAs provide exciting benefits for mobile commerce, including an app-like interface, easy maintenance, and fast performance

7 Ease of maintenance Because PWAs don’t require a separate code base for desktop and mobile environments, they are relatively efficient to maintain. Also, PWAs update in the background like a website, so no new download from an app store is required.

Faster speeds everywhere PWAs are designed to use bandwidth efficiently. Scripts known as service workers run in the background to manage network traffic and store data locally. This means PWAs use less cellular data and perform better in locations where network connections are spotty. Plus, fast mobile loading speeds can help pages rank higher in search engine results.

Even better, building PWAs doesn’t require extensive, complex development. According to the Forrester Wave: B2C and B2B Commerce Suite reports, Magento Commerce’s “PWA Studio is positioned to lower the cost and complexity of adopting Progressive Web App experiences.”

Eleganza dazzles customers and boosts conversions with a PWA

Netherlands-based high-end fashion and apparel retailer Eleganza re-architected their mobile shopping experience to sync online and offline pricing and inventory. They also redesigned their checkout with a PWA. Three months after implementation, the firm saw lower operating costs and a better buying experience:

76% 23% 372% increase in page visits average decrease in faster average server per session page load time reaction time

Read the full case study >

8 Personalized53.3 product recommendations on the go

Research shows shoppers who engage with a recommended product have a 70 percent higher conversion rate.5 This is especially true for fashion and apparel, because shoppers often think about “looks” or “outfits” as much as favorite products. Incorporating product recommendations—especially personalized ones—can make your mobile content-powered experience even better.

Of course, generating accurate product recommendations manually—and updating them in response to seasonal shifts in consumer behavior—is extremely time-consuming. A more effective approach is to rely on machine learning algorithms that crunch real-time behavioral and sales data to continually improve recommendations.

Magento Commerce comes with personalized Product Recommendations powered by Adobe Sensei, Adobe’s machine learning technology. It automatically analyzes the behavior of shoppers on your site—including their product views, items added to carts, and purchases—and combines that information with product catalog70 metadata, such as name, price, and so on, to create product recommendations that are engaging, relevant, and personalized.

70% conversion rate for shoppers who higher engage with a recommended product

9 Pulling it all together

A content-powered experience can help you increase sales and customer satisfaction. And delivering it on mobile devices is a great way to reach shoppers when they’re relaxed and pondering what they’d like to wear next. Consider these questions as part of planning a content-rich mobile experience for your customers:

• Which audiences will be using your mobile site?

• Do you need to access native smartphone functions to provide AR and other rich content?

• Does your mobile experience include personalized product recommendations?

• Do your mobile customers have access to Wifi and strong cellular connections?

• Do you currently offer a mobile experience through responsive web design or native apps? How do customers use it?

We recommend that you consider PWAs as an alternative to both responsive web design and native apps—and add personalized product recommendations to your mobile content mix.

Learn more about Magento for mobile commerce >

Try an interactive demo >

10 Sources

1 https://www.pymnts.com/study/remote-payments-april-2020 2 https://chainstoreage.com/consumers-are-ready-m-commerce-are-retailers 3 https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/about-pwc/contribution-to-debate/ wef-the-impact-of-fiveg-report.pdf 4 https://www.slideshare.net/adobe/adobe-digital-insights-holiday-recap-2019 5 https://www.emarketer.com/content/the-impact-of-product-recommendations

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