Mobile apps and shopping sites offer a great deal of convenience to consumers, but retail marketing leaders should keep the customer experience in mind when implementing their mobile options. Merchants have been focusing on enhancing the shopping experience for customers, whether that means making check-out processes more efficient or providing personalized suggestions online.

Many of these ideas come from the classic strengths of physical stores, demonstrating how excellence on-site and online can go hand-in-hand. Forbes magazine encouraged mobile app designers to take some lessons from brick-and-mortar customer engagement strategies. For example, the source explained, local stores often prioritize building relationships with patrons, which can sometimes slip through the cracks during digital interactions.

"Mobile shopping apps and sites need to offer greater levels of personalization, service and support to consumers," Brent Cohler, director of mobile product marketing at SAP, told Retail Customer Experience. "Mobile commerce is about much more than just the payment."

One way a store can improve its engagement strategy is to learn more about its customers, Forbes added. Merchants can collect data for retail customer intelligence to better tailor their apps according to shoppers' needs and preferences. The point is to be flexible and let customers see that their opinions and feedback are being taken seriously.