With the holidays right around the corner, it’s time for consumers to get on their shopping game and make their purchases for friends and loved ones. Research from Salesforce found that shopping on mobile has surpassed all other mediums of e-commerce, including via desktop and tablet. Consumers are moving away from other methods of shopping, including in person, and are actively choosing to shop through their phones.

It’s the best time of year to take advantage of increased sales and mobile commerce marketing. Creating a holiday mobile commerce strategy will not only build your brand and get its name out there, but also bring forth loyal, long standing customers who will come back year after year.

How can you optimize your mobile marketing strategy for the holidays? Here are 3 ways to get started.

1. Improve the user experience

The easiest way to lose consumers’ interest is by making the shopping experience more difficult than it needs to be. According to Formstack, 57 percent of users won’t recommend a business if it hasn’t been optimized for mobile. You can have a stellar mobile ad campaign for the holidays but it still wouldn’t be enough if the user experience is lacking in any way.

As technology advances and more people choose to shop on mobile, it’s expected that businesses already have mobile optimization set in place. Statista finds that in 2018, e-commerce via mobile will account for nearly 40 percent of all retail sales. So if you aren’t optimizing your mobile commerce strategy, you’re losing tons of conversions.

Consumers aren’t willing to put up with lagging pages and broken links. Studies show that if a page takes any longer than three seconds to load, 53 percent of visitors will abandon it and move on to something else. That means you have actual seconds to make a good, lasting impression.

Analyze every aspect of your mobile commerce strategy to improve your UX. Check that every page runs smoothly and without glitches. Make sure that pages aren’t lagging or being redirected elsewhere and that text is big and clear. Set up a poll or survey encouraging visitors to share what their mobile shopping experience is like for your business. This will give you better insight as to what can be improved so you retain loyal customers and increase your ROI.

Personalize the shopping experience

According to Salesforce, 64 percent of shoppers feel that retailers don’t truly know them or what they want. Without this information, it’s difficult to have a clear target audience and create products and services that directly relate to your visitors. With the holiday season here, it’s essential to know what consumers are looking for.

That’s where artificial intelligence (AI) plays an essential role in your mobile marketing strategy. Using advanced technology, it’s now possible to personalize and customize the UX. Voice search recognition is also on the rise as one in five adult shoppers use this feature on mobile.

More businesses are implementing chatbots and automatic searches to their strategies so they can better understand their audience. With such refined interests being searched during the holidays, it’s imperative that the consumer feels special.

Businesses are also taking advantage of augmented reality (AR) in their mobile strategies. IKEA created their Place app so users can see what more than 2,000 pieces of furniture would presumably look like in their own home.

By helping consumers visualize the look they want that matches their style and preferences without ever having to leave home, IKEA is building on revenue and conversions. If there’s a place for AR technology, it’s in mobile commerce.

Test every aspect of your mobile strategy

You frequently hear about testing your marketing strategy for websites on desktops, but there’s not enough being said about testing your mobile content.

Since 40 percent of all retail sales are via mobile transactions, you must make sure to test different parts of your marketing to see what sells best. By implementing A/B testing to your mobile campaigns, you’ll find that certain colors, wording, or headlines work better than others.

What may work for desktop users won’t necessarily work for mobile. It’s all about figuring out what your mobile audience wants and molding your brand to fit their interests and expectations. That includes a seamless mobile strategy.

Moving forward

If you’re trying to increase sales and ROI this holiday season, optimizing your mobile marketing strategy is the way to go. Ensuring that the online shopping experience runs smoothly is key to keeping loyal customers by your side and bringing in the interest of new consumers.