This past holiday shopping season was a big coming out party for mobile commerce, which finally reached a critical mass of consumers. Retailers gained valuable insight into what innovative mobile strategies can help drive Web sales and engage consumers more directly on the go. As Nina alluded to in her post about the iPad launch, mobile devices and now tablets are becoming increasingly popular for everything from shopping, to social networking and consuming media. The opportunities are virtually limitless for merchants to connect with their customers across channels, and the smart phone continues to be one of the key devices that demands attention. Here are some trends to watch for in 2010 as retailers try to maximize the value of m-commerce.

1. Apps, Apps & Apps:  Last year we introduced a framework for our customers to build their own iPhone applications; Tommy Hilfiger was the first company to launch a shopping app with ATG, and it’s a success story we’re really quite proud of. This year, we’re adding Android Apps and browser apps.  Together these provide consumers with great shopping experiences for all Smartphones and retailers with an efficient and effective way to capitalize on the growing mobile market. 
2. Consistent cross channel stores:  While Apple & Google battle it out and mobile platforms and devices continue to expand, retailers will need to follow the lead of companies like Best Buy and create mobile stores that are based on the same underlying commerce platform and infrastructure as their traditional Web sites, meaning customers have access to the same product inventories across channels;
3. GPS-driven mobile interactions: Creative online retailers will micro-target customers that opt in to  receive location-based services, offers and store information;
4. Barcode scanning: When customers are physically in a store, they want to be able to use their phone to get more information – some of our customers have already implemented features that let consumers scan a product barcode or text a special code and immediately receive more product information, access to customer reviews, etc. One of our major European retail clients is actually building this into the iPhone shopping app they’re creating, and it’s something we hope to see others embrace, as well;
5. SMS and push notifications: Using mobile alerts and text messages to reach consumers is not groundbreaking – but it is smart and increasingly effective. This year, we’ll see more companies keeping consumers aware of sales and gift guide suggestions via push notifications, helping keep their brand and products top of mind.

 These practices are just the tip of the iceberg. Now that m-commerce has finally come into the mainstream, making it easy for consumers to shop on their phones will be a key trend in 2010. The cross-channel opportunity presented by mobile is tremendous, and so is the potential for innovation by e-retailers as they experiment with new ways to reach today’s “commerce anywhere” consumer.

We’re pleased to congratulate a number of our customers who have been nominated for The 2010 Racie Awards, which will be announced during a gala reception at The Retail Innovation & Marketing Conference on March 3.

These honors are broken into several categories of pioneering marketing initiatives from traditional print and online advertising to the creative use of motion design and social commerce. According to the Racie Award site, “this year’s competition was stiff, with a 42 percent increase in entries over last year,” so we’re impressed that six of our customers made the list of nominees.

Customers in the running for these notable awards are: AT&T (with our partner, Sapient, as the agency of note), Best Buy, CVS/pharmacy, JCPenney Company, Inc.,  Tommy Hilfiger and OfficeMax. We’ve often expressed our pride that the brands selecting ATG are among the smartest and most creative when it comes to finding innovative and engaging ways to connect with their customers, so it’s great to see our friends getting some well-deserved kudos for the impactful marketing campaigns they’ve executed in recent months.

In fact, we’re particularly thrilled to be recognized for our work to deliver the Tommy Hilfiger iPhone app, which was nominated under the Racie Awards’ new “Mobile Apps,” category. You can read more about this project in our earlier blog post or by reading the app launch press release.

We wish you all the best of luck and we look forward to seeing you and toasting to your success in the year ahead at the Racie Awards Reception & Dinner Gala!

How do you define social commerce? Has social media made selling products online easier or more complex? With shoppers now empowered and more influenced by what they hear from their friends or family through social media than by an advertisement, how have merchants’ selling strategies been impacted?

I’ve just started a social commerce series on the ATG Community where I’ll look at how this social revolution and virtual collaboration is giving rise to new software/SaaS solutions to help merchants better engage with consumers. Head on over and give it a read.

“How am I supposed to control my brand if it is molded by the voice of the consumer?”

One of the primary discussions and concerns of 2009 centered on how the rise in social computing has caused marketers to feel as if they’ve lost control of their brand. It’s 2010, and let’s face it, this is still a big issue for marketers across the country. This presumed loss of control is understandable, but marketers do have some powerful tools available to help them actually strengthen their brand by learning from the “voice of the consumer.”

Live help technologies (those such as click to call or chat services) enable marketers to listen to, respond to, track, and analyze their customers “voices” during the process of providing online customer service on a specific part of the Web site. Applying what is learned through this analysis can ultimately help companies increase online conversation rates, reduce Web site abandonment, reduce service costs and even improve their products and services.

One major U.S. airline used click to call to analyze customer service issues pertaining to its online flight bookings process, and then improved its Web site based on the analysis.

The airline – which uses proactive live help – noticed a rise in call center volume stemming from a particular point in the online booking process. Taking quick action, they listened to a sample of the click to call recordings originating from that point in the bookings process to determine if callers were encountering a common problem.

As it turned out, the rise in click to call use was a result of travelers’ inability to view their seating assignments on a specific page. They were using click to call to find out their seating assignment before continuing the booking process.

With this ”voice of the customer” knowledge, the airline improved its booking process by making the seat assignment more prominent. The result? A drop in click to call activity and direct bottom-line impact (not to mention happier customers).

This is one of those hidden benefits of live help that businesses often don’t consider when evaluating the potential return on investment. Unlike a 1-800 number, click to call and live chat interactions can be tied directly to each customer’s online context, as this example shows.  With live help, companies can capture, listen to and respond to the voice of their customers at the most critical moments of need to drive revenue and customer satisfaction while reducing support costs.

How are you strengthening your brand by capturing and responding to the voice of you customers?  I’d love to hear your stories.