If any brand was ready to take on a pandemic, it was e.l.f. Cosmetics. In 2019, e.l.f. made the decision to close down all of its stores to focus on growing its digital presence. When the pandemic hit, the e.l.f. team didn’t have to worry about shutting down stores or transitioning to online-only. They already had the infrastructure and internal processes in place to quickly pivot and capitalize on a new surge in digital traffic.

Being a digitally native brand, they already had quite a few initiatives going strong to connect with their customers and give them the confidence to shop online. From leveraging TikTok and user-generated content (UGC) to adopting virtual reality, Kritika Pande, a Digital Marketing Data Manager at e.l.f. Cosmetics, shares the strategies her team is using to prepare for the holiday season. 

Here’s what she had to share about the changing Bringing the In-Store Experience Online:

What trends have you seen evolve over the last six months?

Many beauty brands saw a big jump in skin care. We had three new skin care lines already in the pipeline, so it was great timing for us. People are home, they’re stressed, and they want to take care of themselves. Investing in skin care was a great way to invest in self-care for many people. While we saw a big push for skincare initially, our most popular products kept changing throughout COVID. Everything we do is driven by data and we then saw insights that people wanted to take care of their eyebrows because no one was leaving their house to get them done in a salon. We used those insights to pivot our site and story to cater to that audience. Then, eyeshadow was back because people wanted to feel pretty even when wearing a mask. 

Results from e.l.f.’s Skin Care Finder survey

The top behavior trend that I’ve seen happening is social shopping. People are looking at what’s being sold on TikTok and Instagram. They love the cool, snackable content. I think in the coming year, it’s going to be more important to bridge social media and your own shopping experience to make it seamless for the user. 

I think in the coming year, it’s going to be more important to bridge social media and your own shopping experience to make it seamless for the user. 

What are some interesting and unique ways you’ve seen brands pivot to connect with customers this year?

Customers no longer just care about a brand’s products. They want to know about the brand and what it stands for. When they come to your site, they want to know: Who is e.l.f.? What does it stand for? What does it believe in? And am I connecting with the brand? If they do connect with your brand, they are going to be loyal to you, and then they’re yours to keep.

If they do connect with your brand, they are going to be loyal to you and then they’re yours to keep.

When COVID hit, our data insights showed that people wanted to know what we were doing during the pandemic. They wanted answers to questions like: Are you having shipping delays? Are you not taking orders? Are your stores not open? 

We launched a page called e.l.f. Cares. Its initial purpose was to be our COVID information hub, but now it’s grown to be everything about us. It has everything we stand for, the fact that we’re cruelty-free and vegan, our commitment to embracing diversity and inclusion, and anything else we believe in as a brand. 

The e.l.f. Cares page, featuring e.l.f’s commitment to creating cruelty-free products, embracing diversity and inclusion, supporting the Black Lives Matter movement, and more. 

We’ve seen stats that users who actually visit that page during their session have an almost 100% higher chance of converting than someone who hasn’t. It just proves the fact that the user is connecting with our brand. This page was just a test for us, but it’s proved it’s working. Our customers want to understand our brand in a deeper way and that’s a way we’ve connected with them at e.l.f.

How have you noticed brand content strategies evolve this year?

Education has taken such a big step up recently. People want to know what is in a product, how to apply it, how to wear a specific shade, whether they can pair it with another product, etc. People want to know more about the products they’re browsing. Quick, snackable how-to videos are fun, educational, and relatable. People are on the move and they want to know how things work quickly. 

Storytelling has also become very important. All your channels need to speak the same language and have the same look and feel. You need one cohesive experience. The same stories you feature on Instagram should also be on your site for people to instantly connect with. 

All your channels need to speak the same language and have the same look and feel.

Lastly, UGC has become really big. Everyone believes other people and they want to know what other people think. It’s about letting your customers relate to people like them and building a community. People connect to it because it’s more relatable. As a beauty brand, we have a very intimate relationship with our customers and UGC is a great way to match that. 

How are brands approaching this holiday season differently?

The biggest thing is the holidays started with Prime Day. Everyone knows that. Prime Day used to be in July or August so there used to be a big gap between that and the holiday season. Now, there’s not. It’s going to be a prolonged holiday season, which is great for brands. You have more days for people to shop, but it also means it’s not just limited to those two days. People are going to be expecting great stuff from now on. It’s a longer season and it’s going to continue until Cyber Monday. 

There has to be a great way to handle shipping delays. The consumer knows that there will be delays this year, but it’s important to set expectations and inform them through email, on your site, in their order confirmation email, etc. This is also a great way to encourage them to order ahead of time: “Shop now because there will be delays in November and December.” Another reason you should be upfront about your estimated shipping times is if you offer expedited shipping, a customer might be willing to pay the extra money to have their purchase delivered on time. On the other hand, if a customer is not willing to pay that extra money, they need to know that their order won’t come in time. We need to give customers more information so they can make informed decisions.

We need to give customers more information so they can make informed decisions.

We’ve already talked about how important it is to help the consumer holiday shop on your website because that’s where they’re taking their business this year. But there’s still time to pivot your website, change navigation, talk about holiday products and promotions, figure out what your consumer is looking to do that they can no longer do in-store. Make your website reflect your in-store experience and help your customers convert and buy. It’s also important from a channel standpoint if this consumer is coming from email or search, knowing how the intent is different. Someone coming from search was probably looking for you and they have intent to shop and are lower down the funnel. Help them convert and that can only happen on-site. It’s really going to be important and it’s a big challenge that everyone is facing, but I do think there’s still time. There are some quick fixes that can happen that can help achieve that.

How should businesses be using data leading up to the holidays?

Data is super crucial right now. It always was, but now, digital and online data is even more important than before. In terms of site metrics and behaviors you should be measuring, measure bounce rate, and conversion rate. Really look at specific pages in more detail, like your product and category pages, as well as your checkout funnel. Is someone bouncing unnecessarily on a checkout page? Why could that be happening? You want to dig deeper and the deeper you go, the more you will find issues that you want to fix as soon as you can.

For conversion rate, you want to look at whether you’re sending all your traffic to a page that’s not converting the way you expected it to. A weekly or quarterly data report isn’t going to cut it anymore. It should be part of your daily conversations. You want to have open communication between your data people and the business. “Here’s what’s working” or “Here’s what’s not.” You need to think on your feet. Data is not just a report, it’s a discussion. 

A weekly or quarterly data report isn’t going to cut it anymore. It should be part of your daily conversations.

In terms of UX, which is what we use Contentsquare for, we look at engagement with content. Say you’ve got a new promo banner, how are people engaging with that? Are they attracted to the banner? Are they trying to click it, but it’s not working? Are they not converting when they click on it? Content is so important now. At e.l.f., we A/B test everything. Say we see that a banner is not doing what our average banners do, we always have creative backups we can swap out and test to see if they do any better. It’s important for people to get this vision of data that’s more than a report, it needs to be a discussion and dialogue. What I love about e.l.f. is that data is a dialogue. It lets us make a lot of data-informed decisions.

How is e.l.f. helping customers get that in-person experience online?

There are a couple of things that will be important. The first is quick how-to videos that are real. They don’t have to use a model, it should just show someone wearing the product, show product swatches on different skin colors, show the product’s texture, the different sizes it comes in, and the color options. Try to be real in those videos. You don’t want them to come off as super fabricated, fancy videos. Make them realistic and more visual for the consumer. You can do this with product images too. If a customer is thinking of buying a sweater, show the image as close as you can, so they can see the product’s texture. In a store, you can feel a product and see how amazing it is for yourself. Brands need to figure out how to bring that online. 

The second thing is AR. We’ve had Virtual Try-On on our site for a while and it’s now on our mobile app. We want to make it easy for our customers to try our products. You can use a picture, a model, or a live camera to try a product on. That’s as close as customers can get to trying on a product in-store. 

e.l.f Cosmetics’ Virtual Try On tool that lets customers choose a model, upload a photo of themselves, or use a live camera to try a product on.

Lastly, think of when you enter a store around the holidays. There are always pre-packaged holiday gift sets or a curated collection of products ready for you to buy. But, if customers aren’t going to stores, they might not think to look for those sets. We need to make holiday gifts readily available on-site via gift guides and look books. Then, develop a content strategy around those sets too. Think, “If you’re buying this bundle, here are the looks you can create with it, and here’s how to use the product.” That’s another way to bring that in-person experience online.

This interview is an excerpt from Contentsquare’s ongoing Fall Semester webinar series. In addition to e.l.f. cosmetics, we’ve spoken with digital experts from leading brands like Orvis, VF Corporation, and Nespresso.

Click here to register for the next Fall Semester session or watch the full recording of “Bringing the In-Store Experience Online” with Kritika Pande of e.l.f. Cosmetics. 

This holiday shopping season is gearing up to be quite different from past years. As COVID-19 cases continue to surge across the country, many retailers aren’t sure if their brick-and-mortar locations will even be able to remain open during the holiday shopping season. And, even if they do open their doors, many customers still feel un-easy shopping in-stores.

The silver lining for brands? Digital transactions continue to soar and businesses don’t have to worry about websites and mobile apps closing down due to COVID. Plus, this year’s holiday season is expected to be a record-breaking period for eCommerce, with analysts expecting online sales to grow by 18%. 

Even amid all the uncertainty, brands are doing their best to meet changing customer needs and capitalize on this new surge of digital traffic. We sat down with digital experience experts from e.l.f cosmetics, Dell, T. Mobile, Orvis, and VF Corporation to hear how they’re preparing for this untraditional holiday shopping season. 

Here’s what they had to share:

1. Digital Activations with e.l.f. Cosmetics

“We take holidays, just like every retailer, very seriously. What’s really different about this year is that we were able to learn so much about our customers because of the pandemic. That’s going to inform the content we produce and how quickly we put it out there. I don’t think people will be comfortable walking into stores until the end of the year, so we’ll be focusing on bringing more products to our augmented reality experience, attracting new consumers, and figuring out how to engage and educate them on how our different products come together. 

We’ll be focusing on bringing more products to our augmented reality experience.

In a way, our preparation is no different than last year, but this year, we’re going to be adapting more quickly and focusing more on digital activations. People are not going to be comfortable walking into stores so bringing even more activations online will be the key.” 

— Etka Chopra, VP of Digital at e.l.f. Cosmetics

2. Year-Round Preparation with Dell

“I think the holiday season itself has been evolving a lot over the last several years. Once upon a time, it was all about Black Friday, then we had Cyber Monday, then there was Green Monday. Holiday transformed from a single day event into a whole season of holiday shopping. And it’s no longer restricted to the period after Thanksgiving anymore. You have Black Friday in July, Amazon Prime Day, Dads & Grads, Back to School, and at Dell, we do things like Ten Days of Deals. It’s always ongoing. 

At Dell, we start holiday prep as soon as one holiday season ends. You must have a detailed plan from a merchandising, procurement, and fulfillment standpoint to assure that you have the right assortment of products that your customers are looking for next year. We were already deep into holiday season planning for Q4 when COVID started. 

You must have a detailed plan from a merchandising, procurement, and fulfillment standpoint

Today, it’s hard to imagine a scenario where there will be long lines in physical stores and that again brings more focus to digital. Our focus is to make sure that we allow customers to be able to transact with us and find exactly what they’re looking for on our digital properties. We’re making sure deals.Dell.com is ready to go, which we actually use year-round. We’re always testing new ideas, seeing what is working, learning how customers interact with our site, and figuring out how we can impact their customer journey in a positive way. 

For us, there’s never really downtime when it comes to prepping for the holidays because the sales cycle goes on all year long. The holiday calendar has transformed from that two-three week time period to being essentially all year long.” 

— Vab Dwivedi, Director of Digital Customer Experiences at Dell

3. Finalizing Holiday Offers with T. Mobile 

“Typically, we start our holiday planning process right about now. We decide what offers we’re going to have and what phones will be on sale. We always have to wait until the Apple Special Events, where they announce their new product releases, which happen in September/October.  From there, we fly right from there into holiday preparation. That’s when we decide what phones we’ll have deals on and determine whether we focus on upgrades, prospects, a mix of both, etc. 

Over the last few years, the whole idea of Black Friday and Cyber Monday has gone out the window.

Over the last few years, the whole idea of Black Friday and Cyber Monday has gone out the window. Last year, we started doing holiday messaging and offers a week before Black Friday then we change offers that run up until Christmas so as people are making last-minute decisions there are still great offers for them. It’s not just a weekend anymore. It’s almost a full month.”

— Kerry Sikora, Sr. Manager, Business and Performance Analytics at T-Mobile

4. Adopting a New Content Strategy with Orvis

“From a creative perspective, the majority of our holiday season assets are being produced now. We’re hypothesizing what the social climate will look like in November and beyond, and shifting our storytelling to incorporate those predictions. We’re focusing on ways to change the dialogue on what the season is going to be. 

We’re hypothesizing what the social climate will look like in November and beyond, and shifting our storytelling to incorporate those predictions.

Orvis, being a family-owned company, takes a lot of pride in family gatherings. This year, we probably won’t see the large 20+ person gatherings around a large dinner table. The holidays will probably be more intimate and you might just be celebrating with the five people you’re closest with. This year, we’ve been leveraging the Perkins family, the family owners of Orvis, more and more. They live the brand and are Orvis in and out. We’re trying to capture the spirit of coming together with those who mean the most to you, and highlight the small things you can do to put a spin on your traditions and still make the holidays meaningful.”

— Dan Corby, Sr. UX Design Manager at Orvis

Want a more in-depth look at how the Orvis team is prepping for the holiday shopping season? Click here to hear more about their 2020 holiday strategy and website design overhaul.

5. Enhanced Product Imagery with VF Corporation

“We’ve started to push out more 3D product photography. One of the best things about offline shopping is that you can touch the product, see it, try it one, and hold it next to you. People value being able to spin a product, open a suitcase, and see what’s in it. We also have a separate experience that lets you view a product’s size in comparison to a Nalgene, an iPad, and other tangible everyday items. There’s nothing worse than getting a backpack, realizing it’s smaller than you need it to be, and having to go through the hassle of returning it and waiting for a new one. 

Eagle Creek is really where we’re pushing 3D product imagery hard. Our luggage pieces have a lot of really cool features that you can’t really portray with just flat product images. A 3D product image lets customers spin the product around on their screen, click on it, and discover a cool locking feature or something else. People are visual—we could put the words on the page, but people don’t always read them.

 People like to see what a product looks like in the real world and on other people, especially if they can’t see it in a store.

The other thing we’re prioritizing is user-generated content. People like to see what a product looks like in the real world and on other people, especially if they can’t see it in a store. We’re putting a lot more emphasis on lifestyle product shoots so we can show products in a tangible experience even though it’s on their computer screen.” 

— Ashley Peterson, eCommerce Analyst with VF Corporation, the parent company of JanSport and Eagle Creek

Interested in hearing how more retail brands are preparing for this year’s holiday season? Check out our Holiday Readiness Hub for brand success stories, interviews with digital experts, helpful UX/UI tips, actionable workshops, and more.

This holiday shopping season is gearing up to be quite different from past years. As COVID-19 cases continue to surge, many retailers aren’t sure if their brick-and-mortar locations will even be able to remain open during the holiday shopping season. And, even if they do open their doors, many customers still feel un-easy shopping in-stores.

The silver lining for brands? Digital transactions continue to soar and businesses don’t have to worry about websites and mobile apps closing down due to COVID. Plus, this year’s holiday season is expected to be a record-breaking period for eCommerce, with analysts expecting online sales to grow by 18%. 

Even amid all the uncertainty, brands are doing their best to meet changing customer needs and capitalize on this new surge of digital traffic. We sat down with digital experience experts from e.l.f cosmetics, Dell, T. Mobile, Orvis, and VF Corporation to hear how they’re preparing for this untraditional holiday shopping season. 

Here’s what they had to share:

1. Digital Activations with e.l.f. Cosmetics

“We take holidays, just like every retailer, very seriously. What’s really different about this year is that we were able to learn so much about our customers because of the pandemic. That’s going to inform the content we produce and how quickly we put it out there. I don’t think people will be comfortable walking into stores until the end of the year, so we’ll be focusing on bringing more products to our augmented reality experience, attracting new consumers, and figuring out how to engage and educate them on how our different products come together. 

We’ll be focusing on bringing more products to our augmented reality experience.

In a way, our preparation is no different than last year, but this year, we’re going to be adapting more quickly and focusing more on digital activations. People are not going to be comfortable walking into stores so bringing even more activations online will be the key.” 

— Etka Chopra, VP of Digital at e.l.f. Cosmetics

2. Year-Round Preparation with Dell

“I think the holiday season itself has been evolving a lot over the last several years. Once upon a time, it was all about Black Friday, then we had Cyber Monday, then there was Green Monday. Holiday transformed from a single day event into a whole season of holiday shopping. And it’s no longer restricted to the period after Thanksgiving anymore. You have Black Friday in July, Amazon Prime Day, Dads & Grads, Back to School, and at Dell, we do things like Ten Days of Deals. It’s always ongoing. 

At Dell, we start holiday prep as soon as one holiday season ends. You must have a detailed plan from a merchandising, procurement, and fulfillment standpoint to assure that you have the right assortment of products that your customers are looking for next year. We were already deep into holiday season planning for Q4 when COVID started. 

You must have a detailed plan from a merchandising, procurement, and fulfillment standpoint

Today, it’s hard to imagine a scenario where there will be long lines in physical stores and that again brings more focus to digital. Our focus is to make sure that we allow customers to be able to transact with us and find exactly what they’re looking for on our digital properties. We’re making sure deals.Dell.com is ready to go, which we actually use year-round. We’re always testing new ideas, seeing what is working, learning how customers interact with our site, and figuring out how we can impact their customer journey in a positive way. 

For us, there’s never really downtime when it comes to prepping for the holidays because the sales cycle goes on all year long. The holiday calendar has transformed from that two-three week time period to being essentially all year long.” 

— Vab Dwivedi, Director of Digital Customer Experiences at Dell

3. Finalising Holiday Offers with T. Mobile 

“Typically, we start our holiday planning process right about now. We decide what offers we’re going to have and what phones will be on sale. We always have to wait until the Apple Special Events, where they announce their new product releases, which happen in September/October.  From there, we fly right from there into holiday preparation. That’s when we decide what phones we’ll have deals on and determine whether we focus on upgrades, prospects, a mix of both, etc. 

Over the last few years, the whole idea of Black Friday and Cyber Monday has gone out the window.

Over the last few years, the whole idea of Black Friday and Cyber Monday has gone out the window. Last year, we started doing holiday messaging and offers a week before Black Friday then we change offers that run up until Christmas so as people are making last-minute decisions there are still great offers for them. It’s not just a weekend anymore. It’s almost a full month.”

— Kerry Sikora, Sr. Manager, Business and Performance Analytics at T-Mobile

4. Adopting a New Content Strategy with Orvis

“From a creative perspective, the majority of our holiday season assets are being produced now. We’re hypothesizing what the social climate will look like in November and beyond, and shifting our storytelling to incorporate those predictions. We’re focusing on ways to change the dialogue on what the season is going to be. 

We’re hypothesizing what the social climate will look like in November and beyond, and shifting our storytelling to incorporate those predictions.

Orvis, being a family-owned company, takes a lot of pride in family gatherings. This year, we probably won’t see the large 20+ person gatherings around a large dinner table. The holidays will probably be more intimate and you might just be celebrating with the five people you’re closest with. This year, we’ve been leveraging the Perkins family, the family owners of Orvis, more and more. They live the brand and are Orvis in and out. We’re trying to capture the spirit of coming together with those who mean the most to you, and highlight the small things you can do to put a spin on your traditions and still make the holidays meaningful.”

— Dan Corby, Sr. UX Design Manager at Orvis

Want a more in-depth look at how the Orvis team is prepping for the holiday shopping season? Click here to hear more about their 2020 holiday strategy and website design overhaul.

5. Enhanced Product Imagery with VF Corporation

“We’ve started to push out more 3D product photography. One of the best things about offline shopping is that you can touch the product, see it, try it one, and hold it next to you. People value being able to spin a product, open a suitcase, and see what’s in it. We also have a separate experience that lets you view a product’s size in comparison to a Nalgene, an iPad, and other tangible everyday items. There’s nothing worse than getting a backpack, realizing it’s smaller than you need it to be, and having to go through the hassle of returning it and waiting for a new one. 

Eagle Creek is really where we’re pushing 3D product imagery hard. Our luggage pieces have a lot of really cool features that you can’t really portray with just flat product images. A 3D product image lets customers spin the product around on their screen, click on it, and discover a cool locking feature or something else. People are visual—we could put the words on the page, but people don’t always read them.

 People like to see what a product looks like in the real world and on other people, especially if they can’t see it in a store.

The other thing we’re prioritising is user-generated content. People like to see what a product looks like in the real world and on other people, especially if they can’t see it in a store. We’re putting a lot more emphasis on lifestyle product shoots so we can show products in a tangible experience even though it’s on their computer screen.” 

— Ashley Peterson, eCommerce Analyst with VF Corporation, the parent company of JanSport and Eagle Creek

Interested in hearing how more retail brands are preparing for this year’s holiday season? Check out our Preparing for Peak Hub for brand success stories, interviews with digital experts, helpful UX/UI tips, actionable workshops, and more.

It’s 2020, the beginning of a new year, and more notably, a new decade. With our environment shifting constantly around us, and both our physical and digital worlds increasingly blending together, it can be difficult to imagine what lies ahead. 

Here are a few trends we observed in 2019 that we believe will gain even more momentum as digital CX surges ahead in the new decade.

Are Bottom Navigations Making a Comeback?

As mobile traffic continues to grow, so does the size of our smartphone screens. Screen sizes have almost doubled since the first iPhone release, with market share shifting drastically to larger screens as sales increase. In 2019, 43.4% of the market share was dominated by screens sizes 6” and above. Reaching the top of mobile screens remains difficult, which is why smartphone manufacturers have adapted thumb zones for larger mobile devices.

To adjust to changing device designs, we are slowly seeing the navigation shift back down to the bottom of the mobile screen. More recently seen at the top of the screen, top-level functions on some apps and mobile sites are coming back down to the bottom of the display, where they are easier for users to access quickly, no matter the device size. Take a look at Uber and Lyft: 

Most of the key and primary functions are at the bottom of the screen, with an additional tab bar. Secondary functions that are not associated with the current and most primary tasks are still findable behind the hamburger menu, which remains at the top of the screen.

Bottom navigation is proven to be a winning UX tactic for ride-hailing companies Uber (left) and Lyft (right)

From Work to Home, Across all Devices

Given the surge of mobile use in the past decade, syncing across different devices in different environments is now a far from a perk, but is now a must. User experience (UX) continues on even after users interact with their first device. For example, users may start watching their downloaded Netflix shows on a plane, but finish them on their phone or tablet, or even on the less mobile, but highly relevant, smart TVs at home. 

Because our physical and digital devices are continuously blending together — at least as far as usage is concerned — it is imperative for companies to store specific user data in order for the experience to continue smoothly. From saving items in your shopping wishlist to pausing past streamed or downloaded shows, users want to be able to log into their accounts from any device, and pick up exactly where they left off.

Augmented Reality, from Your Makeup to Your Shoes

Yet another sign of the physical and digital worlds coming together, augmented reality integrations are ramping up across channels. Retailers are attempting to bridge the gap between brick-and-mortar and digital experience (DX) by creating immersive environments to create added value for customers.

According to Gartner, 100 million consumers are projected to shop in AR online and in-store in 2020, with 46% of retailers planning to deploy AR or VR solutions. 

Although 69% of the nation shops online, 56% of those who shop online say they would prefer to shop in-store. So in-store environments continue to matter, despite speed and convenience winning when it comes to digital experiences. As networks and connections increasingly improve with the advent of 5G, AR technology is helping brands to bridge the gap between users’ in-store and digital experience.

Check out this immersive experience with Sephora’s Virtual Artist:

It is the perfect marriage between customization and virtual reality. Users can upload an image of themselves (or use a model) and see the results of multiple product lines and a variety of styles. What the user is “wearing” is listed below the image, and can be removed or clicked on to go directly to the relevant product page. 

The Future of CX is Already Here

Technology that might have seemed impossible a decade ago is today a reality. The devices we use are now deeply connected to our lives, creating a closer connection than we have ever had with our consumers. If there’s one lesson we’ve learned in the last decade, it’s to embrace the new, and expect our consumers will do the same.

Hero image: Adobe Stock, Via rcfotostock

Currently, most brands design with the mobile experience in mind, if not with a completely mobile first strategy. As for the digital landscape at large, current trends and experiences point to an environment verging further towards an expanding smartphone reliance. This will continue as mobile innovates ease of use and facilitates better user experiences.

However, a mobile-only digital environment will likely never materialize. Instead, the digital space will make headway in lesser-used areas of technology: AR/ VR (Augmented Reality/ Virtual Reality) and the IoT (Internet of Things).   

Despite the widespread adoption of mobile technology, there are several challenges intrinsic to mobile. Also, the steady shift from desktop to mobile does not mean there is a looming end to desktop usage either.

Let’s look at how mobile dominates and how it’s lacking. The latter will show the limitations that mobile has to surmount to truly rule the digital space.

Lack of Internet Connection Impedes Mobile First

Firstly, mobile is hampered by the lack of a continuous internet connection, consequently facing the issue of reliability, especially for users on the go.  A no-wifi or shoddy wifi zone will either completely block or impede internet use, which will negatively affect users’ mobile experience.

With desktop, which is bound to one place, internet connectivity is rarely an issue, as long as one’s internet provider has decent coverage. Mobile cannot thrust forward unless there is more internet connectivity, since accessibility can make or break the mobile user experience.   

Mobile Vs Desktop

Mobile is more geared towards instant interactions, and is therefore used whenever and wherever. Desktop however, also has its advantageous moments, such as when users have more time to spare and are in a comfortable environment.

Desktop also leads in more difficult and laborious tasks, such as working and conducting research. It is safe to assume that offices are not going to install mobile phones for work-related tasks, at least not as employees’ main workstations.

Therefore, aside from its reliable wifi connectivity, desktop rules in time-consuming tasks, as well as in those that require a larger screen, such as for watching shows and films. However, mobile now accounts for nearly 70% of digital media consumption, so the jockeying for entertainment dominance has no definite victor.

Although more people sign up for Netflix via mobile, 70% of Netflix subscribers watch the programs on their TVs. This essentially proves that although users consume more entertainment on their phones, the desire to enjoy entertainment on larger screens still prevails, evidenced by the popularity of large-screen TVs.

Thus, even though mobile use is increasing, it faces challenges in how to be more reliable, practical and pleasurable to truly lead ahead of desktop and even TV.

The Edge of Mobile First

Despite these conditions, mobile still has the edge and ability to dominate digital.

Mobile has immense potential because it is more physically accessible; it is always in your hands or in your immediate vicinity.

This is especially important for e-commerce, as there is a greater consumer presence on mobile. For example, even when browsing in a store, customers check their phones to see if they can find better deals or delivery options elsewhere.

Additionally, some brands, like retailers Kohl’s, Macy’s and CVS offer app checkout for customers in-store, streamlining the buying process with a mobile-first approach.

With this virtually unlimited availability, there is a larger pool for potential sales. Mobile easily trumps desktop in this regard. However, even with a growing traffic of mobile marketplaces, mobile carries a lower conversion rate than desktop, as over 80% of mobile users who reach the cart don’t complete their purchase. It needs to obtain a shrinkage in the conversion gap to truly dominate.

Mobile continues to grow for specialized use cases. For example, certain services, such as e-hailing are only available for use on mobile. This is because these services were designed for apps; while desktop versions of these brands exist, their capabilities are far more limited.

Usually, the desktop versions do not include the basic services of these apps. (Think Lyft and Uber). This is because when there’s a linkage to mobility, there is no need for an additional desktop capability, as most of these apps are tailored for people on-the-go.

There are plenty of apps branching out of desktop almost entirely. For example, with Instagram and Snapchat, users can only post via the mobile apps. Apps are a hot digital tool, and their popularity isn’t waning any time soon. As more of them are developed, following suit of current mobile-first companies, the need to have their capabilities available on desktop will be diminished if not killed off.

The Rise of AR/ VR, the Internet of Things & Omnichannel Use

As technology advances at lightning speed, there are plenty of other alternatives giving mobile a run for its money. For example, IoT technology has advanced to a larger presence through virtual voice assistants in houses, smart refrigerators, smart mirrors, etc. There’s also the innovation of augmented reality, wherein real-world objects and elements are modified by computer-generated perceptual information.

For example, in e-commerce, augmented reality allows customers to use their own bodies and environments and add something virtual to them, such as to try on clothing from a store or visualize virtual furniture in their homes. These capabilities allow potential customers to assess products without the need to be physically present at a store. Instead, the store comes to them via AR.

Aside from these innovations gaining ground, people also switch their usage on channels. In a recent survey of grocery consumers on digital, we found that there are high conversion rates and session duration averages on both desktop and tablet. Conversion rates on desktop and tablets were at 8.86% and 6.84%, vs only 1.46% on mobile. Session duration averages were 7.1 and 6.7 minutes on desktop and tablet, while only clocking in at 3.7 minutes on mobile.

A Mobile-First World with Other Technologies Mounting

In conclusion, mobile has been growing at a gradual pace and brands have caught on, optimizing their mobile experiences, if not designing completely for the mobile experience first, as the name suggests. But despite this mobile-first approach, there is still a gap many brands face between user willingness to be on mobile and converting on mobile.

As such, mobile still has an uphill battle to climb regarding usability challenges it hasn’t yet cracked, despite its rise in use each passing year. (And despite the creation of more apps and higher website traffic on mobile.)

Conversely, there are also plenty of AR/ VR innovations in the works, which will continue to expand their presence beyond the sphere of the tech world and into people’s homes. It is only a matter of time before they become household names, and perhaps one day…staples.