Less Than One-Third of Leading Online Retailers Are Ready for Tablets, Finds Zmags Study

BOSTON, Feb. 16, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

News Facts:

• Zmags, the leading provider of rich media mobile and social merchandising, today released results of a research report entitled, "Mobile & Tablet e-Commerce: Is anyone really ready?"
• Zmags commissioned HawkPartners, a marketing consulting and research firm, to assess the mobile and tablet offerings of the Top 100 Internet retailers, who were evaluated on the shopping and purchasing experiences they provided across tablets (iPad), smartphones (iPhone and Android) and Facebook.
• The research revealed that fewer than one-third of retailers have optimized sites for tablet commerce. Most are simply relying on their standard websites to provide an "adequate enough" tablet shopping experience.
• Other key findings include:
  • More than half of retailers have developed smartphone-specific offerings to provide key functionality for the smaller screen.
  • While more than two-thirds of the retailers have developed iPhone apps, only half of that group offers the ability to purchase via the app.
  • All 100 retailers have Facebook brand pages, but only one (Coldwater Creek) lets consumers directly purchase from the Facebook page.
• The research identified three retailers (Gilt Groupe, Disney and Urban Outfitters) as having the strongest and most robust mobile offerings across most devices and channels.
• Only 19 of the top 100 retailers extended beyond ordinary HTML-type content to include more engaging material such as look books, catalogs, editorial picks, etc. However, none of them extended the dynamic environment or optimized the brand experience across the full range of smartphones, tablets and Facebook.
• An interactive multimedia summary of the research is available at http://www.zmags.com/blog/new-research-report-mobile-tablet-commerce-is-anyone-really-ready
• A full research report, entitled ""Mobile & Tablet e-Commerce: Is anyone really ready?"can be downloaded at www.zmags.com/top100.
• All results are based on the research conducted over a 4-week period in November and December 2011.

Supporting Quote:

"What we discovered, unexpectedly, was that very few retailers—even among this elite group of marketers—are tapping into the full shopping potential of mobile and tablet devices. In fact, not even close to it," said W. Sean Ford, COO and CMO of Zmags. "Only one quarter of retailers are ready to take a consumer through checkout over tablets, but forty-nine percent of today's tablet owners said they plan to shop even more next year using their device. This reflects a serious disconnect between how consumers want to shop and the inconsistent experiences they are being offered. It's a crucial issue that retailers need to address before their competitors do."

About Zmags

Zmags helps thousands of the world's most progressive global retailers and brands design brilliant and consistent marketing and merchandising campaigns across social, mobile, tablet, and e-commerce platforms, driving product discovery and inspiring purchases. Using the Zmags on-demand rich media merchandising platform, leading brands have measurably and dramatically increased customer engagement, conversion rates, order size and brand loyalty without the burden of IT constraints. Zmags is among the fastest growing technology companies in North America, ranking #70 on the Deloitte 2011 Technology Fast 500.  Zmags is headquartered in Boston, MA. with European offices in London and Copenhagen. For more information about Zmags, please visit www.zmags.com. 

Media Contact:
Samantha McGarry
InkHouse for Zmags
781-966-4107
[email protected]

SOURCE Zmags