E-retailers boost mobile conversion with touch interface
By Retail Technology | Monday April 7 2014
A touch based e-commerce interface has delivered almost 18% conversion rate in a live application of patented new technology for TV shopping channel
Scandinavian TV shopping channel Sjoppi has achieved a conversion rate of 17.8% on tablets following the introduction of a new touch-based interface for mobile shopping.
Sjoppi uses three sites in different languages to complete transactions from its TV shopping channels. And the interface is provided by the patented StoreFront system from Swedish company ShopLogiQ, offering a drag-and-drop method to move products to the basket.
“Our solution builds on the strengths of touch-based devices, instead of regarding these as platforms with limited capabilities,” said Stefan Deleuran Mumm, head of product development at ShopLogiQ.
“The drag-and-drop technology offers a tactile experience that makes it easy to just slide the product to the basket. The experience is similar to shopping in an ordinary retail store.”
Removing responsive design requirement
Henrik Haagen, founder of Sjoppi, said: “The StoreFront interface for tablets and smartphones is a simple yet sophisticated way to make mobile e-shopping simpler and faster, while avoiding a large and complicated responsive design project. It also suits the behaviour of our target audience, where use of mobile devices is high and increasing.”
Viewers of the TV shopping channel are encouraged to complete purchases online. Computer users see the standard interface while the ShopLogiQ StoreFront interface is displayed to users of tablets and smartphones, while both interfaces use the same webshop.
“The tactile experience results in the customer feeling in more control over the merchandise in the process; this results in a very high conversion rate and more products in the basket, findings that have been confirmed by recent research from Carroll School of Management, the business school of Boston College in Massachusetts,” Mumm added.
Sjoppi’s 17.8% conversion rate for tablets and 8% for smartphones has been calculated based on the number of visitors to the site and purchases completed since the sites went online in early February. According to figures from analytics service IBM Coremetrics, the conversion rate from visit to sale for retail sites on PCs is normally 4%.
Sjoppi’s e-commerce site is based on Magento Community 1.8.1, and ShopLogiQ said its StoreFront interface can be integrated with all modern e-commerce platforms via an application programming interface (API).
Offering richer mobile shopping experience
This is the second installation for ShopLogiQ StoreFront; the interface was first used by UK photographic retailer Digital Depot.
Jake Helman, Digital Depot director, told RetailTechnology.co.uk: “The problem with most e-commerce sites is that they are adapted for computers with a mouse and keyboard, making them difficult to navigate for people using mobile devices.
“By enabling customers to explore our products more deeply, add them to a cart easily and use ‘swipe to pay,’ we have seen the potential to give our customers a much richer shopping experience, and a greater potential to drive our sales.”
The ShopLogiQ technology was also showcased by UK distributor iStone UK at Internet Retailing Expo in Birmingham’s NEC last month. Andy Hughson, iStone UK managing director, said: “The response we received at the recent Internet Retailing Expo in Birmingham was terrific.
“We signed one new deal on the spot and have several exciting leads to now follow up on. Once you’ve used the interface yourself, and seen how intuitive it is for consumers to use, the decision to purchase is all but made. With each new client on board we are also building statistical evidence to support the theories”.
Mumm concluded: “According to a survey conducted by Nielsen, 87% of US smartphone and tablet owners have used their mobile devices for shopping-related activities. However, only 40% of tablet users had used their device to make a payment. This suggests users are poorly served by current e-commerce sites.”
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