Article
Why consumers are driving the retail mobile experience
Executives at Money 20/20 conference discussed the importance of user feedback when developing and tweaking products and services.
November 10, 2015 by Will Hernandez — Editor, NetWorld Media Group
For all the money, time and research companies spend these days to develop what they believe is the best customer experience for their products and services, consumers always have the final say in the development process, either directly or indirectly.
Multiple executives who participated in panel discussions at the recent Money 20/20 event in Las Vegas highlighted how valuable consumer feedback is in the development process for products such as mobile apps, especially when you consider how much time we spend on connected devices each day.
"The customer is driving what's next," Tony Zubek, manager of credit and loyalty at Lane Bryant, said during a panel discussion about mobile payments in retail. "When [our customers] come to the mobile site or app, it has to be clear and intuitive. We're so inundated with different types of channels, we have to make sure it runs right the first time they visit. We have to make sure they're engaged in the process."
OpenTable, the online restaurant reservation service, uses a unique method to keep its users engaged with the company.
Tomer Molovinsky, a senior product marketing manager at OpenTable, told attendees at one session that the company hosts monthly "dine outs" to learn how consumers use its online and mobile offerings.
He said that while such gatherings can be unwieldy, they offer OpenTable valuable feedback to help it better tweak its core services.
"You have to understand what drives the consumer to make a decision," Molovinsky said.
And it seems that most consumers today make these decisions outside when they engage with social media networks.
Social commerce was another hot-button topic at Money 20/20 as networks such as Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter add and tweak services that make it easier for their users to buy products from their favorite brands.
Twitter last month expanded its "Buy Now" button feature to enable consumers to purchase products, digital goods, or services within the social media network.
"We're already the place where consumers interact with brands," Philippe Dauman Jr., director of commerce at Twitter, said during a panel discussion about buy buttons. "Sixty percent of our users use it to ask questions and get information from their favorite brands. For us, it's one tool [buy button] among many for brands to use in an engagement strategy."
Pinterest also sports a buy button of its own now that it's added 'Buyable Pins' to its network. The feature gives users the ability to buy items from the Pinterest mobile app instead of being redirected to a brand's website. The company recently said there are some 60 million 'buyable pins' on its network.
"You should meet the customers where they are," Michael Yamartino, head of commerce for Pinterest, said during a panel discussion. "We say to them, your customers are on Pinterest, so give them ability to buy on Pinterest."
About Will Hernandez
Will Hernandez has 14 years of experience ranging from newspapers to wire services and trade publications. Before becoming Editor of MobilePaymentsToday.com, he spent two years as the content manager for PaymentsJournal.com, a leading payments industry news aggregator and information hub published by Mercator Advisory Group. Will spent four years covering the payments industry as an associate editor for multiple publications in SourceMedia's Payments Group based in Chicago.
