Aseem Chandra is vice president of the Adobe Experience Manager and Adobe Target business. Bringing 20 years of experience to the Adobe team, Aseem is in charge of messaging and positioning, sales enablement and training, pricing and influencing the strategy for digital marketing products and services. In addition to his position at Adobe, Aseem is a frequent speaker at AdTech, CES, eMetrics, IAB, MediaPost and OMMA Global.
Due to his vast experience, we asked strategic marketer and Adobe VP Aseem Chandra, "What will mobile commerce landscape look like in 5 years?"
"I often have to stop and remind myself the first smartphone was introduced just six years ago. And, surprisingly, the first tablet dropped into our laps just three short years back. Three years!
Clearly, in a particularly condensed period of time we’ve seen consumers gravitate to mobile devices in a huge way. Last year, there were 121 million smartphone users and 94 million tablet users in the U.S. alone, representing a 31 and 180 percent increase over 2011, respectively.1 And it’s only natural consumers are interested in using those devices not just to connect, research and compare, but also shop, purchase and pay, as well. In fact, they already are; retail transactions on smartphones and tablets will grow 63 percent this year to reach over $34 billion.2 Impressive for a device category that didn’t exist a handful of years ago. As they say, 'You ain’t seen nothing yet!'
'Mobile commerce' may have started out as show-rooming, but savvy retailers have already begun to take that phenomenon and turn it on its head. Today, Target offers a price match guarantee in its brick and mortar against not only its own online store, but also those of its key competitors, including Amazon and Walmart.com. Surf and compare to your heart’s desire, but still buy with us.
Mobile will increasingly be the glue that connects the online world with the physical world. While m-commerce is young—and relative to overall commerce, still fairly small—it’s set up to have an outsized influence on all of retail in the future.
For example, location data has existed for some time, but not been used much in marketing to date. And geo-fencing, which recognizes when a consumer is nearby and enables the retailer to offer deals based on location, is also possible, but marketers have hesitated for privacy considerations. With near-field communications (NFC) and iBeacons introduced in iOS 7, the potential to search and navigate confusing aisles inside a store is becoming a real possibility. Checkout counters are already moving from traditional point-of-sale devices to clerks with tablets who can approach you while you’re shopping and quickly get you on your way. And easy to use peer-to-peer payment mechanisms, such as Square, are enabling the 'sharing economy' in a radical way.
With the world becoming increasingly mobile, it’s imperative for retailers to fully jump on-board or be yesterday’s news. So, what will the next five years hold? Individually tailored and truly cross-channel experiences that are transparent, anticipating our needs and wants in a way perfectly suited to that very moment in time and location. Sounds delightful. As a consumer I can’t wait, and as a marketer I’m inspired."
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1 “Search gets a mobile makeover, eMarketer, April 2013”
2 “The Mobile 500, Internet Retailer, October 2013”
Do you agree with Aseem that retailers will have to hop on board the mobile train if they want to survive?
