Lessons from Wal-Mart

Success in e-commerce has come naturally to many small and large retailers. However, such success seems to be forever evading one of the top retailers in America, Wal-Mart. The store’s online retail sales growth has been dropping steadily since the beginning of 2014. In the first quarter of 2015, the retail titan saw a glimmer of hope with slight sales growth. This was short-lived. In the past year, their sales have only grown by 7 percent–and this in comparison to their previous year’s growth of 17 percent and an industry average of 15 percent.

So, why is Wal-Mart struggling? In 2015, they invested 2 billion dollars into e-commerce advancements. These advancements included everything from upgrading their e-commerce fulfillment centers to other innovations that made the website more user-friendly.

But it was not enough–or it was too much in the wrong area? What Wal-Mart did not do was look at consumer shopping trends. If they had, they would have seen that consumers want to use their mobile devices to visit and buy products on retail sites!

Whether you are a big retailer or you own a smaller business, this is big news! And no one seems to be paying attention to it. Smartphone traffic makes up 53 percent of online retail traffic, beating out both tablets and personal computers. Smartphones also represent 29 percent of online sales. Furthermore, of the top 100 global retailers, only 60 of them had dedicated mobile websites.

So, whatever the size of your business, one of the best e-commerce investments that you can make is to create a dedicated mobile site. This will help consumers do what they do best–consume–and it can dramatically increase the size of your profits.

And when investing in a mobile platform for your retail business, don’t forget the branded e-commerce packaging, to make sure your brand carries itself into every mailbox!

If you would like to look at options for your retail business, contact us.