A new study from Custora – a web and mobile analytics firm that serves a number of retail clients – suggests that while traditional online shoppers may spend more money, mobile shoppers are making more frequent purchases.

Data from the company's research notes that mobile shoppers make 59 percent more purchases than those browsing from desktop PCs. On average, however, the mobile customer tends to spend 12 percent less than their online counterparts, indicating that while smartphone shoppers are important, ecommerce consumers should still be the primary targets.

Moreover, online shoppers tend to be more consistent. Monday through Friday, mobile sales accounted for 15 percent of total ecommerce expenditures. This figure jumps by 60 percent on weekends to 24 percent, suggesting consumers are more active on their phones on Saturday and Sunday.

There were further discrepancies based on the niche a retailer occupied, Internet Retailer observed from Custora's data.

"A Custora housewares merchant client can expect 97 percent more profit from mobile customers than from desktop customers over the course of a two-year cycle, or lifetime value, the study finds," Internet Retailer added. "Mobile customers of housewares order 105 percent more often than desktop shoppers and their average order size is 13 percent greater."

More than 8.2 million customers were examined as a part of the study, with data collected from companies that generate between $50 million and $150 million annually.

Qualifying mobile customers

While Custora's data shows that mobile shoppers are frequent buyers, it also highlights the fact that different retailers may get different results. When planning new ecommerce programs, merchants should always consider their audience before making any meaningful changes to store operations.

"We all know mobile commerce is growing, but there’s no easy way to categorize mobile customers – they behave differently for every retailer," Corey Pierson, cofounder and CEO of Custora, told the news source. "To develop a mobile strategy, it’s critical to understand what mobile means for your specific customers."

Regardless of whether a business ends up incorporating mobile, it's still important to consider the new technology because of its growing user base. According to data from comScore, upward of 106 million American consumers currently own these devices.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Wednesday, May 16th, 2012 at 9:02 am .

If retailers needed any additional evidence to highlight the growing importance of offering consumers mobile commerce sites, a new report from comScore suggests more Americans are leveraging their mobile devices to visit online retailers.

Of the approximately 100 million U.S. adults who own a smartphone, 44 million of them visited Amazon.com's mobile retail website in March. Meanwhile, 27.2 million headed to eBay's mcommerce website using either mobile web browsers or downloaded applications.

However, mobile apps and websites are not even, and retailers may want to focus on the former before developing the latter.

"Analysis of the share of time spent across apps and browsers revealed that even though these access methods had similar audience sizes, apps drove the lion’s share of engagement, representing four in every five mobile media minutes," the report added. "Analysis of the top properties also revealed widely varying degrees of time spent between app and browser access methods."

Mobile apps carry the additional benefit of always being present on consumers' smartphones once they are downloaded, providing a quick shortcut to a retailer's product page.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Monday, May 14th, 2012 at 7:47 am .

Warm weather in April means American shoppers are spending less time shopping and more time outside, causing a slight dip in retail foot traffic over the course of the month. Compared with March, in-store shopping declined 7.6 percent and was down 2.7 percent year-over-year, according to new data released last week by ShopperTrak.

This makes April the first time in more than three months that foot traffic has declined in both month-over-month and year-over-year capacities. It's especially noteworthy that not even the Easter holiday could salvage April in terms of in-store visitations.

"Also, because March’s weather was so unseasonably warm, many shoppers took to the streets and bought their spring wears before April arrived," Retailing Today adds. "This meant that although April too experienced above-average temperatures, most consumers had already spent their shopping dollars."

However, industry professionals believe Mother's Day should boost shopping and help retailers mount a full recovery.

Retailers feeling particularly hard hit by the decrease in store traffic may want to consider launching special marketing campaigns for Mother's Day. By promoting discounts and offerings through a wide variety of mediums, retails may be able to lift sales.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Monday, May 14th, 2012 at 7:44 am .

Retailers continue to see the benefits of operating an ecommerce platform, with newly released data from comScore suggesting online spending experienced double-digit year-over-year growth during the first quarter of 2012.

American shoppers spent upward of $44.3 billion during the first three months of 2012, an increase of 17 percent from the same time frame last year. With the economy still slow to recover, many consumers are budgeting their expenses more carefully. That means they are turning to the web, where they can frequently find better deals on the goods and services they want to purchase.

"The first quarter of this year was especially strong for retail ecommerce as we returned to year-over-year growth rates in the high teens, numbers we haven't seen since 2007," said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni. "… the channel shift to ecommerce appears to be accelerating. This presents opportunities but also challenges for brick-and-mortar retailers if they can’t hold onto their offline market share in the digital world."

Despite the growth of ecommerce, many retail industry experts expect brick-and-mortar store operations to continue to be important for the overall shopping experience, at least for the next decade.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Sunday, May 13th, 2012 at 10:14 am .

Tablet devices are no longer just luxury toys for affluent consumers – they have real value for businesses, particularly retailers. When used in conjunction with specific hardware, they can be converted into mobile point-of-sale (POS) terminals for a fraction of the cost of traditional systems. Moreover, they are tremendously more flexible – a tablet can be carried anywhere, whether it's the front of a store or a sporting event, enabling merchants to conduct transactions regardless of location.

That said, Software Advice recently offered some suggestions for brands looking to use tablets as POS devices. The blog spoke with several small-time merchants who recently began using the devices to determine the best way of incorporating them into store operations.

1. Don't go all out

Tablets are inexpensive, but that doesn't mean retailers should go and purchase a dozen for use in the store. Traditional point-of-sale systems still have a number of notable benefits, and tablets do have some drawbacks as well. Not to mention the fact that this could add up and that tablets tend to have a short lifespan compared to other POS solutions.

2. Outsource setup

Using tablets as retail POS terminals may be a foreign concept to many merchants. When deploying these devices, then, it may be a better idea to hire someone more familiar or experienced with integration.

"My time is limited. It was helpful to have an expert set everything up," Stacey Barnes, cofounder of toffee shop GoodyTwos, told Software Advice.

"A reseller can focus on migrating data, setting-up merchant services accounts, and ensuring the deployment goes smoothly. Resellers can also help with integration of previous systems," the news source added.

3. Get people involved

Among retailers, using tablets for checkout purposes is a new concept, but among consumers, it's practically unheard of. As a result, merchants may be able to impress shoppers with their cutting-edge mobile POS systems. The news source suggests getting people involved with the checkout process using the tablets – have them sign receipts using the touch screen or let them finish the transaction by hitting the final confirmation button. It's all about crafting a new consumer experience.

Recent data from RIS News highlights the growing prominence of tablets at retail – approximately 28 percent of merchants are currently using these devices.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Friday, May 11th, 2012 at 10:13 am .

The latest release of Retail Pro 9 has seen a complete reworking of its serial number management and tracking functionality. The enhanced dialog function can be utilized to filter the list of numbers by store or for a single number, view key information about serial number quantities and note any discrepancies, add or remove serial numbers, show active or inactive numbers and display relevant number histories.

Key changes made in Retail Pro 9 include serial numbers being tracked and stored at a store level, rather than the company level used previously, enhanced tracking and display functions, direct links to dialogs for viewing the number's document history, the ability to filters lists by store, company and filter numbers and flags that can be activated as necessary for greater security.

Retail Pro International is committed to providing its clients with the most usability in their retail software. The latest release of Retail Pro 9 highlights this with added functionality in terms of enhanced serial number tracking, reuse of UPC codes within a retailer’s inventory, and a centralized customer loyalty module.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Friday, May 11th, 2012 at 9:34 am .

When it comes to identifying inventory, an item's unique product code (UPC) is perhaps one of the most reliable means of achieving this goal. Retailers and merchants around the world frequently purchase UPCs in block and then assign these codes to inventory items as needed. These UPCs do not, however, come cheap. Depending on the size of a retailer’s needs, the costs associated with purchasing UPCs can be quite high. For this reason, once stock has been depleted for a given run of goods, many retailers opt to reuse the associated UPC codes.

Conceptually this process works well within retail; however, Retail Pro’s inventory can be configured to define inventory items as unique by its UPCs. This can clearly be a problem when a retailer wishes to reuse a UPC because it has already been assigned as "unique" to a given item in inventory, hence requiring a retailer to purchase more UPCs once they have depleted their previous sets.

This issue has been addressed in the latest version of Retail Pro 9. Now merchants can choose to use global UPCs, local UPCs or any combination of the two.

This is only one of the features added to the latest release of Retail Pro 9. The latest version also contains enhanced serial number tracking and better customer loyalty initiative support.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Friday, May 11th, 2012 at 9:32 am .

MasterCard has announced a new PayPass Wallet Service to compete with other technology and payment processors with mobile offerings. The initiative consists of a digital wallet, payment acceptance network and interface system with banks, merchants, technology providers and consumers. So far, two major partners have been announced Barnes & Noble and American Airlines.

PayPass Wallet Service program

The PayPass Acceptance Network includes PayPass Online and PayPass Contactless, depending on where the retailer conducts point-of-sale (POS) transactions. PayPass Online, as the name conveys, is intended for ecommerce platforms, enabling customers to enter their payment information once and then use that data for all subsequent purchases.

PayPass Contactless, on the other hand, is for brick-and-mortar retailers. This is the contactless POS payment system that enables merchants to accept payments from near field communication devices, such as smartphones. These stations are integrated into traditional POS terminals and enable consumers who own these devices to use them to complete payments.

The PayPass Wallet is essentially a digital wallet service that any organization, ranging from banks to merchants, can offer consumers under their own brand. This enables companies to bolster shopper awareness by offering trendy payment options with their own name and can be used in conjunction with other credit cards offered by American Express, Discover and Visa.

Cross-platform interaction is pivotal to the success of MasterCard's PayPass initiative, and the Application Programming Interface (API) enables that. "The API allows those participating in the program to connect their digital wallets, enabling customers to make purchases wherever PayPass is accepted – on the web, the mobile web and in-store," the credit card provider explained.

Learning new technologies

Speaking with Internet Retailer, Rick Oglesby – senior analyst at consulting firm Aite Group – was quick to point out that mobile wallets, and by extent, MasterCard's PayPass initiative, represents a paradigm shift in terms of how consumers pay for goods. Shoppers will need to acclimate themselves to the new way of spending money before it truly becomes mainstream.

"Consumers will need to register for the service and learn to recognize it and use it," he told the news source. "If MasterCard achieves a level of critical mass on consumer enrollment, then merchants will definitely accept it. That being said, it is a competitive environment with others offering similar services, so driving consumer enrollment and activation will be key."

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Thursday, May 10th, 2012 at 9:27 am .

Consumers using Visa cards at point-of-sale (POS) terminals may enjoy smoother transactions during future shopping trips, as the financial services provider has announced its decision to raise the "no signature required" limit from $25 to $50.

Starting in October 2012, discount retailers and grocery stores in the United States will be able to accept credit and debit card transactions up to $50 without requiring Visa card holders to sign receipts or enter their personal identification numbers (PIN). Visa hopes this will expedite the point-of-sale process while also bolstering end user convenience.

"Visa is committed to delivering solutions to help our merchant and financial institution partners better serve their customers, reduce costs and grow their businesses," said William M. Sheedy, group president of Visa. "As a result, merchants have asked us to expand the program to purchases up to $50, so they can more efficiently support consumers' growing preference to use cards instead of cash or checks for purchases."

Americans' payment preferences have evolved over the years and it's crucial retailers support them by offering the options they want, regardless of whether it's cash or mobile wallets.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Thursday, May 10th, 2012 at 9:25 am .

Retailers have long bemoaned the current conditions in Australia, with many citing enhanced competition from online sellers as a core issue the sector is facing. However, in March, the retail sector managed a somewhat surprising comeback after many analysts suggested the industry would continue to struggle.

Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics suggests retail sales grew 3.7 percent to AU$21.23 billion (US$21.15 billion). Even after inflation, this is still a substantial gain and mirrors the revival of other sectors as well, such as private house building.

Some economists were quick to attribute the gains from normalizing food prices, rather than sector-wide resurgence.

"Heavy discounting in food prices through the quarter in a flat economy looks to have played a role here," Annette Beacher, head of economic research at TD Securities based in Singapore, told The Wall Street Journal. "We know that food prices collapsed in the quarter and that seems to be where all the retail demand is emerging."

Many Australian retailers blame the lack of importation laws for the weak sector. Consumers can simply pay less expensive prices on foreign retail websites because there is no legislation preventing this practice.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Thursday, May 10th, 2012 at 9:24 am .