The steady rise of m-commerce is innovating personalisation and has started to become a mainstream way for shoppers to buy online. In fact, if you look at the latest statistics, mobile e-commerce now counts for almost 30% of all the e-commerce sales in the U.S. As mobile is becoming an integral part of shopping experience, retailers also need to adjust their automation and personalization strategies. Here are 3 ways retailers can consolidate the changes and tap into this shift in consumer behavior.

Anticipate Shopper Needs

Firstly, recognize that both desktop and mobile devices play separate roles in e-commerce purchase funnel. Mobile phones are still more used for upper-funnel shopping activities, with users more likely to close the deal in person or on a PC. In addition to that, compared to desktop web interfaces, there is less flexibility to create custom interfaces for each and every user on your mobile site.

You should study your customer behaviors, collect aggregate data to customize each user’s experience on mobile according to patterns identified. For example, keep track of which products consumers search for, browse, like or purchase. Once you have this information, send notifications based on past purchases, searches, and activities on-site or mobile app. When you accumulate a lot of knowledge and adapt smart automation, it works so much better than manual mobile site optimization. According to statistics, 7 5% of companies using marketing automation see significant ROI within 12 months.

Personalize for People, Not Devices

Shoppers are immune to impersonal promotions. From the moment they enter your mobile site, it has to feel personal and tailored just for them and when done right, mobile personalization can have a big impact on sales. A key step in personalizing mobile shoppers is to put your visitors into segments so that the app or mobile site presents users with content that is highly relevant for them. Give users the option to opt-in to receive push notifications as well – in this way you can offer them discounts at nearby stores and promotions based on their shopping activity.

Statistics show that nearly 60% of consumers want real-time personalized promotions and offers. And what do they like about personalization most? A majority of respondents (64%) like access to exclusive deals and automatic crediting for coupons and loyalty points. Personalized experience can also be achieved by engaging with shoppers on mobile: encouraging to take photos – it helps to connect and serves as a social proof for other visitors too.

Optimize Checkout Process

Optimizing mobile checkout is a priority because of a cart abandonment – a lot of times browsing and transactions do not just happen on a single device and during the first visit. In fact, 85% of online shoppers are not ready to buy the first time they visit your site. Therefore you should focus on tracking & optimizing multiple device transactions: make products in shopping cart stay until customer orders it or clears it out. On the other hand, if products are sold out, you can give an option to add it to their personal waitlist and inform shoppers once it is available.

Every visitor should have the ability to leave purchases in shopping carts, close it and come back later to check out. Last but not least, consumers expect transactions to be easier on mobile than they are on desktop – make it easy, painless and with no extra steps required.

The message is simple: progress or regress: now comes the rise of mobile e-commerce automation and personalization – a huge opportunity for brands to harness the power of actionable customer data.