Building a Frictionless Consumer Experience Using Mobile

As we’ve previously noted, most shoppers in India use a mobile device to make a purchase. The problem is that while consumers are quick to embrace mobile devices, brands are not. This can especially be pronounced during large-scale events such as Diwali, Christmas among others.

Consumer Frictions on Mobile

At all stages of the customer shopping journey, consumers report issues with the mobile experience offered by their favorite brands. Here’s just a small snapshot of what our research revealed:

• Long video ad load times.
• Lack of communication in local languages.
• No omnichannel experience provided.
• Not enough reviews and ratings.
• The product that someone gets is different than they looked at online.
• There are too many steps needed to make a purchase, and the checkout process isn’t optimized for mobile.
• Poor after-sales service (delivery, installation etc.)

Consumers want a seamless mobile shopping experience. Brands aren’t providing it, though.

Greasing the Wheels on the Mobile Consumer Journey

More than four in five consumers globally say they will immediately switch to a new brand if they have had a bad experience, according to Kantar, and three-fourths of consumers expect a consistent brand experience wherever they engage with a brand (e.g. website, social media, mobile, in person).

Brands need to eliminate the various frictions - information, experience, relevance and payment related, to maximize their chances of winning the connected Indian consumer. Here are the three main things they need to do:

1) Provide a Seamless Omnichannel Experience

Brands should be able to provide a seamless experience across their web stores, apps and offline stores. A frictionless omnichannel experience can be provided by ensuring easy checkout on mobile or in-store, minimizing steps for learning and exploration, providing enough payment options, doing away with registration/ form fills, providing enough ratings and user/ product reviews.

2) Think About and Prioritize Mobile at Every Stage

A frictionless experience needs mobile-first thinking. Brands need to ensure that they optimize for mobile, build mobile-first video or interactive ads and partner with the right technology platforms.

3) Personalize Communications

Brands must deliver personalized communication through precise targeting with the right offers, relevant recommendations, and vernacular communication. TIming of such communication is critical - dynamic messaging depending on which phase the consumer could be in must be accounted for.

Overcoming Frictions to Deliver a Stellar Mobile Marketing Campaign

The goal always has to be to build a frictionless consumer experience using mobile. This happens when brands understand consumers’ needs and behaviour with always-on insights and identify audiences through micro segmentation to drive precise targeting. It happens when they engage and acquire audiences through contextual and relevant mobile marketing, and when they provide a frictionless mobile experience from start to finish.

By prioritizing mobile at all stages, brands can make sure they are capitalizing on the enormous opportunity available to them today.