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Apple customers are spending more on
mobile for three fundamental reasons:
Premium customers. Apple customers chose to buy the
premium product in the market, attracted by style, fashion,
and form. They are prepared to pay extra. Their demographic
profile is different, and they are more affluent. This is a
sophisticated market that chooses high-end products, and a
market that most marketers will want to tap into.
Tablets. Although there are slightly more Apple tablets in the
market than Android ones—and, therefore, we should expect
more Apple conversions—Android tablets are not being used
for shopping at anything like the same rate. By comparison,
Apple tablets are shopping machines, being used late into
the night as part of an evening’s recreation.
Usability. Some evidence suggests that Apple tablets are
easier to use and somehow more engaging. Easy Wi-Fi
connections may be part of the story, coupled with more
apps and a consistent app experience that encourages user
engagement. If users spend more time on the device and
are using Wi-Fi to surf recreationally on a big screen while
sipping a glass of wine on the couch in the evening, then
purchases follow.
How can marketers tap into the Apple
demographic?
Optimize for Apple tablets. E-commerce sites should
focus on getting a full website experience (product range,
product detail, functionality, etc.) optimized for tablets.
Customers have shown that they prefer a tablet version of
the full site over a shopping app. Accordingly, a priority for
e-commerce businesses should be to optimize natively for
iPad first; since the device alone accounts for 70% of mobile
sales, that should not be a hard decision. Case studies
show that where merchants have built device-optimized
experiences, significant increases in conversions, average
order values, and revenue have followed.
Treat Apple customers differently. Orbitz has shown
that presenting a different product mix, more suited to a
particular segment, can drive incremental revenues. Just
as you may already segment high value traffic sources and
show different content, if you make it easier for your Apple
customers to find the types of premium products they are
more likely to buy, then sales will increase. Be wary, though,
of offering differential pricing on different devices.
Adapt (or implement) remarketing strategies. If
you’re not already remarketing with retargeted advertising
and browse-based email campaigns, you need to. Now that
you can recognize high-value customers easily,