Chapter 3

One of the hottest mCommerce issues facing todays marketer is whether to invest in native Apps, or to focus on delivering first class mobile optimised sites. Or both. This is a critical decision, which has no simple answer. First, lets look at the background to taking the mobile optimised site v App decision.

In September 2010, two years after Apps first appeared on the screens of early adopting iPhone users, the front cover of the July 2008 WIRED screamed: The Web is dead. The apocalyptic tagline that ran along with the article read: Two decades after its birth, the World Wide Web is in decline, as simpler, sleeker services - think Apps - are less about the searching and more about the getting.

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For many years, the mobile Internet fell well short of its potential in delivering a satisfactory Internet based engagement channel for information hungry mobile users. This created a vacuum for Apps to gain traction and multiply, unopposed. The phenomenal App success story has been turbo-charged by slick marketing by the App stores, and by the emergence of advertiser-friendly specialist App companies which talked the right language when appealing to client and agency based creatives, developers and C-level staff. THE CASE FOR MOBILE SITES We believe that the Web is far from dead: todays smartphones are equipped with superior HTML5 browsers that will give the mobile web a new lease of life. Mobile Internet browsing is now 150% year-on-year, and it is predicted by Mary Meeker of Morgan Stanley that access to the Internet via mobile will overtake Internet access via PC by the end of 2014. Google and others monitoring usage data predict this milestone will occur in late 2013. Google estimates that only 17% of brands have optimised their sites for mobile, which shows a clear correlation with their site analytics which show average mobile site bounce rates of 79%. The message here is that if you simply serve up your full mobile site onto customers mobile phones, they will bounce off your site immediately, and seek a competitors site which has been made for mobile.

To a degree, the prediction has been borne out. Apps have enjoyed a meteoric rise to prominence in their short lifetime. By March 2012 Apple reported 25 billion App downloads, with App downloads tracking at 1 billion per month, a number matched by its major App store competitor, Android Market. Apps have made a healthy contribution to Apples revenues, generating an estimated $6 billion, which includes the 30% Apple takes in its share of App download spend, charges from in-App payments, and revenue from iAd, its in-App advertising business.

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Chapter 3

Google research reveals 61% of mobile users are unlikely to return to a mobile site if they have had trouble accessing it on their phone; 40% said they would visit a competitors site instead; 19% would have a negative overall impression of the company if they are dissatisfied with the performance of the site. In a Yahoo! survey asking customers how they prefer to access website content on mobile, 12% stated a preference for Apps, 33% preferred content via the browser, and 55% expressed no preference, as long as the brand provided a good user experience.

This contradicts the widely held view that customers love Apps, and that organisations must invest in Apps to satisfy this preference. There is extensive industry research showing which activities mobile users would perform most on their mobiles if sites provided them: maps, info checking, shopping, social networking and coupons all score highly.

ONLINE ACTIVITIES US MOBILE INTERNET USERS WOULD PERFORM MORE OFTEN VIA MOBILE INTERNET IF THE DISPLAY WERE TAILORED TO MOBILE PHONES, JAN 11 (% OF RESPONDENTS)
EMAIL

46%
LOOKING AT MAPS

38%
CHECKING INFORMATION ONLINE

38%
CHECKING THE NEWS

37%
GENERAL BROWSING

35%
SHOPPING

28%
SOCIAL NETWORKING

27%
INSTANT MESSAGING

21%
GAMING

18%
OTHER

4%
DONT KNOW

9%
I DONT HAVE PROBLEMS WITH THE DISPLAY ON MY MOBILE PHONE

6%
NOT APPLICABLE

22%

Source: emarketer.com

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Mobile optimised site v App

The vast majority of organisations which have launched mobile sites have produced sites which show an uncanny similarity, the result of a screen scrape approach, which involves dropping existing web content into a vanilla mobile site template without opting for backend integration. The advantage of the screen scrape approach is that it presents a quick route to market, and avoids potential conflict between PC web and mobile web developers. However, there are significant disadvantages of screen scraping when compared with the fully integrated approach, which provides the better long-term solution. The main disadvantage of using screen scraping is that it doesnt create a differentiated experience for the brand. In the last chapter we noted that the M&S mobile optimised site has one of the highest satisfaction mCommerce ratings, thats in large part because the design has been created to work well with mobile browsers. Another missed opportunity of the screen scrape approach that we will look at in the next chapter is personalisation. With integration of the mobile site with customer databases its possible to deliver tailored offers for the individual that are well-known for increasing engagement, conversion and average order value.

THE HTML5 QUESTION HTML5 will provide some clear benefits for brands and users alike. These include better provision of rich media, the ability to access and use data submitted in previous browsing sessions, and the ability to be accessed at times and in places of poor signal coverage. MCOMMERCE SUCCESS STORY CASE STUDY - FT.COM The FT.com web App is interesting since it shows how HTML5 may make support for different mobile OS easier in future. The FT.com App does a great job in explaining the benefits of non-apps. Under the heading, a better, faster App the FT explains these benefits: - Web browser access No App store download needed Automatic enhancements - No need to visit an App store for the latest version - Reading offline The latest edition is automatically stored for offline access - Speed Improved performance on most connections - Greater range of content Including video on iPhone - gets around the problem of Flash players - Use your existing account No additional registration required

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Chapter 3

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The Guardian recently reported that Financial Times passed 2m users for its HTML5 web App 10 months after its launch, with mobile now driving 12% of subscriptions and 19% of traffic to the newspapers digital offering.

FT Managing Director, Rob Grimshaw, told The Guardian that switching to HTML5 wasnt just about a spat with Apple, but was an attempt to ensure the FT could scale quickly across different devices and platforms:

The origins of the web app come from thinking more broadly about our mobile strategy, and particularly how we are going to cope with developing for numerous different platforms. There are at least five [native mobile platforms] out there that you reasonably have to cover, and a web app is the obvious solution. We just accelerated it because of some of the things Apple did with their subscriptions.

Rob Grimshaw Managing Director FT.com

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YOU HAVE COME TO THE END OF YOUR SAMPLE OF CHAPTER 3. IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO CONTINUE READING SIMPLY SIGN UP AND DOWNLOAD OUR FULL 200 PAGE GUIDE OR EACH INDIVIDUAL CHAPTER - ALL COMPLETELY FREE!. What you can expect to see in Chapter 3: The HTML5 Question 5 Top Tips For Producing Great Mobile Sites Predictions For App Mobile Growth The Case For Apps Whats The Consumer Benefit For Apps? 5 Top Recommendations For Producing Greats Apps Three Predictions For App Growth

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