Top holiday priority: tablet-aware commerce

Ever since the debut of the iPad, merchants have known that tablets are a force to be reckoned with. But new data shows just how prevalent tablets are becoming: , according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project — a tenfold increase since 2010 and an 88% jump since last spring.

Of particular interest to merchants is the fact that unlike smartphones, which are most popular among young adults, tablets are most prevalent among 35-to-44-year-olds, and therefore represent an opportunity to reach adults with disposable income and family shopping responsibilities. The majority of tablet owners live in households earning more than $75,000 per year and are parents, Pew found.

Not only does a considerable portion of the population use tablets, but, as we’ve written previously, tablet shoppers are more apt to buy from their devices than smartphone shoppers, making the audience particularly desirable for merchants to pursue.

For these reasons, merchants should make catering to tablet shoppers a top priority as they optimize their sites for the upcoming holiday season. Depending on their audience, merchants may decide that launching a whole tablet-specific site or app isn’t feasible or even desirable — but all merchants should at least build an awareness of tablets into their strategies. Among the considerations:

Responsive design. As discussed previously, responsive design — which employs a single base of code to generate multiple iterations of sites according to device — has a number of potential benefits and pitfalls. But the popularity of tablets suggests that consumers are willing to expand the number of devices they use as new ones become available, so merchants should begin forming a strategy that allows for agile development of sites for new future gadgets as well as smartphones, tablets and desktop/laptop computers. Responsive design takes technological prowess to implement correctly, but merchants may decide that now is the time to learn the ropes and make the move.

Device context and content. Tablet usage patterns differ significantly from those for  smartphones in a number of respects, including:

• Location. Study after study shows that tablets are used extensively at home and, to a lesser extent, at work — but almost never on the go. Smartphones, by contrast, are used wherever tablets are, but are also integral to experiences in transit. Just over a third of tablet owners use them in stores, for example, whereas three quarters of smartphone owners consult those devices in-store.

• Form-factor limitations. Browsing, viewing images and in-depth research are simply easier on the larger screen of a tablet; as a result, smartphone usage is task-oriented and focused, according to technology researcher Forrester, while tablet behavior encompasses more exploratory and leisurely endeavors.

• Personalization. Tablets are more likely to be shared with other household members, Forrester found, whereas smartphones are linked to a single owner.

Given these behaviors, merchants catering to tablet shoppers should therefore adapt content to fit these usage patterns. Whether creating a separate tablet environment or incorporating tablet-friendly elements into the main eCommerce site, merchants should present tablet shoppers with:

• Video and images. Take advantage of the multimedia-friendly tablet environment and present tablet users with plenty of visual shopping experiences — not just product images and videos but coverage of live events, user-submitted galleries and visually-oriented shopping tools, such as the shop-by-aisle environment on CVS’ iPad app, which allows browsers to select products as though walking the aisles of a physical drug store location.

• Research tools aplenty. Since tablet shoppers tend to proceed at a more leisurely pace than those on smartphones, merchants should provide the means to delve deep into products and related lifestyle topics. Comparison tools, buying guides and detailed product reviews all support the research activities of tablet shoppers. Design Within Reach provides users of its iPad app a “design in context” section which explains why items in its collection are significant vis a vis the history of interior design.

Search marketing. As noted in a previous post, the share of clicks from mobile devices to paid search advertising is growing rapidly. Merchants should craft separate campaigns, not just for desktop/laptop searches and mobile, but for tablet devices as well. In 2012, the average cost per click for desktop search was $0.75, while on smartphones it was $0.48 and on tablets it was $0.62, according to marketing researcher Marin Software. Tablets’ higher conversion rates — 3.3% compared with smartphones’ 2.8% — drive a higher overall ROI than on smartphones, making tablet search advertising a relative bargain when it comes to paid search. But rates are rising rapidly, according to Marin Software, with tablet-specific campaigns poised to rival the costs for keywords targeted to desktop/laptop browsers —  which means merchants should take advantage of the opportunity now to target tablet shoppers while their budgets can still withstand it.

How do you plan to court tablet shoppers during the upcoming holiday season?