Retail commerce via mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet PCs is booming. At the Otto Group the number of website visits in Germany has trebled within a year, with gross turnover levels growing even more strongly, almost quadrupling. The leader in mobile commerce is the USA: at Crate and Barrel, an Otto Group company, nearly one in every four customers now browses the online shop using a mobile device.
The growing popularity of smartphones and tablet PCs such as the iPad are permanently changing the way customers shop in Germany. Customers are finding out about products and buying these ever more frequently using a mobile device and not on a desktop computer. This trend is clearly reflected in the figures at the Otto Group, the world's largest online fashion and lifestyle retailer: the number of visits using mobile devices to the Otto Group's various German online shops trebled in the Spring/Summer season 2012 versus the same period last year – with the value of goods demanded by customers even increasing disproportionately, almost quadrupling.
The number of visits using tablet PCs has grown particularly strongly, almost multiplying by a factor of five, although from a low base in the previous year. "Tablets in particular are playing a big role in the future growth of e-commerce for us", says Dr Rainer Hillebrand, the Otto Group Executive Board member responsible for E-Commerce. "Smartphones are used above all to gather information about products. We attribute the disproportionate increase in demand to greater use of tablet PCs. Thanks to the large-format and inspirational display of goods, tablet PCs invite customers to purchase."
Even if the growth being achieved is still low in terms of turnover – gross mobile turnover levels accounted for roughly 3 per cent of overall online demand in the Spring/Summer season 2012 – the mobile channel plays a key role in the Otto Group's e-commerce strategy. Otto Group companies anticipated the mobile trend early on and launched many mobile apps as well as online shops optimised for smartphones and tablet PCs. As a result, over 80 per cent of German Otto Group online shops will offer a smartphone-optimised mobile shop by the end of 2012 – and over 50 per cent of the Group companies are also planning tablet-optimised commerce activities by the end of 2012. In this regard particularly innovative approaches are being taken by bonprix, which was the first major German online retailer to launch a completely tablet-based Web shop, as well as Sheego whose iPad-App lets customers try on their items of clothing with the aid of a virtual model.
