by Greg Ashton

1) Mobile is not a technology. It’s a behavior.

Understanding how consumers interact, from discovery, conversion and delivery, to product use experience and repurchase, is a critical element of mobile strategy. Platforms do not necessarily cannibalize one another; rather they can work hand in hand to drive the customer to the point of sale. Therefore, the focus for major retailers and brands in 2014 will be to choose the right platform to reach their customer at the right time; allowing multiple platforms to work together to deliver the same content across devices.

Overall, we must remember that attaching ‘mobile’ to our e-commerce strategy does not create a mobile strategy. Rather, success depends on creating the same involvement on mobile devices as seen online and in store by leveraging the power of this unique platform, as it relates to our specific business goals.

2) It is not the devices that are mobile, it is our customers.

Retailers and brands have a huge challenge to keep track of shoppers as they bounce from mobile to tablet to desktop and physical stores, in every way possible. The key question is: As customers bounce around, what is the origin of a sale and is the sale being converted? How do we find correlation between the anonymous Google shopper and the same customer who makes a purchase? And as we increasingly design mobile metrics around experience and satisfaction rather than the traditional measurement of conversion and order value, we need to consider realistic and measurable goals for mobile sales.

Overall, success depends on working alongside solution providers to understand the purchase path and truly influence the journey of our customers.

Greg Ashton is an event producer at Worldwide Business Research (WBR), publisher of this blog, and producer of the eTail event series. His event, Mobile Shopping 2013, will take place from October 28-30, 2013, in Phoenix, AZ.