By Michael F. Carmichael
Dec. 16, 2010
Accenture is a multi-billion dollar international consulting firm that traces its roots back to the consulting division of Arthur Anderson. When they look at a business sector people within that sector pay attention.
So it was when Accenture recently surveyed 1,000 consumers with smart phones who lived in 10 countries around the world.
Swish, scan, click
You may have seen people like the survey respondents when you’re out shopping – or perhaps you’re like them. Phone in hand, fingers swishing across the screen to find the right app, they’re checking the web to see if the price on an item they’ve scanned via their phone is lower somewhere else. Perhaps they’re checking the store’s inventory to see if there are other colors or sizes in the back room. They could even be reading a product review online to see if the marketing copy on the package matches up to actual experience as reported by people who have bought the item previously.
What some of them aren’t necessarily doing is looking for a human to provide those answers.
What does that mean for retailers?
It depends on who you ask.
Corp! talked with Lisa Mitnick, a senior executive in the mobility services practice of Accenture. She said that a lot of her clients want to know how mobile communications, particularly the vast capabilities of smart phones, will evolve.
Mitnick calls it “embedded mobile,” or machine-to-machine communications. Think of connecting your smart phone to your car’s onboard communications system via Bluetooth (http://www.corpmagazine.com/features/cover-stories/itemid/1829/are-you-in-sync-with-your-car). She points out that the number of humans with smart phones is finite, while the opportunities for smart phones to communicate with devices such as refrigerators, home lighting systems, blood-sugar monitors, retail check-out counters and airline check-in terminals is in the billions.
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When Mitnick developed the survey about smart phone users and the retail sector she expected to find that people were “more and more receptive to using their smart phones to do a whole host of activities related to the retail experience.” What surprised her was the extensive use of couponing by users in the U.S. and Great Britain and not so much in France, Italy and Brazil.
Mitnick found that the customers of major retailers that have developed mobile applications for cell phones find them “very useful.” At least a third are either using them (or wishing they could) to get coupons, scan the product barcode for additional information, or register their loyalty membership at checkout. More than a quarter want to pay their bill via their smart phone.
On the other hand, consumers in Accenture’s study still want to interact with real people when it comes to resolving a billing dispute or giving advice – such as explaining how a home improvement product works. They also still want a human to check out their purchases.
But they’re less likely to want to ask a store associate for advice on selecting appropriate apparel or help deciding on different brands of a desired product.