Business Solutions

Luxury Mobile Applications Come of Age

Top luxury brands have enjoyed successful testing and experimentation with e-commerce for a couple of years, and are venturing into social media, at a much greater pace than ever before, driven by the realization they don’t want to miss the soon-to-explode mobile device shopping surge on the near horizon. Ongoing research on wealthy consumers that use of mobile devices show over 75% compare prices via their mobile devices, while a rapidly growing near 30% have purchased via a mobile device.

We are rapidly approaching the point where due their extremely convenient nature, mobile devices are starting to replace the laptop for many activities and transactions and top luxury brands are running to be out in front of the trend for the change.

It is important to remind ourselves that whether face-to-face personal interaction, Website or Smart Phone application exchange, it is important to build and maintain the strong consumer relationship that brings ultimate high-value to any resulting sales transaction. If the customer continues to return, the relationship has had a successful affect directly on the brand value in the customer’s mind. The good news is that when the loyal customer decides to make a purchase, they will typically buy more, as well as spend more.

Research has shown that 80% of High-end brands, as well as other brands aren’t engaging with their customer base through their Smartphone, so there is still enormous potential to be explored and developed through intelligent mobile marketing.

There has been an explosion in apps and Smartphone usage that proves consumers now view mobile as an essential channel for information, communication and entertainment. Retailers are now presented with the golden opportunity to foster and encourage this appetite by providing smart, effective mobile sites, along with the commerce tools that will move mobile marketing from the fringe directly into the mainstream.

The nearly exponential growth of mobile marketing is leveraging ‘real’ consumer demand. In effect, areas such as ‘direct to bill’ and ‘direct pay’ are a whole new opportunity for operators and manufacturers to embrace.

The new generation of even more powerful Smartphones and Tablets along with ever-present 3G, 4G and WiFi will help the mobile industry rapidly achieve the growth that has been promised the last few years.

When you combine this with more location-based applications and services that appeal to users on the move, it means 2012 and beyond will truly see the industry come of age.