Why the Mobile Channel May Hurt Your Business

M-Commerce may not just be a convenience for your customers, but a hindrance to your business. While I heard some positives about the mobile channel last week at the Mobile Shopping Summit in New York, like that
Century Novelty has launched a mobile site and that
Rue La La may see mobile fuel 20% of all its sales, there’s another trend that may help consumers, but hurt your business.

The emergence of bar code readers on smart phones, plus the price-conscious consumer, equals people possibly buying from Amazon while standing on your sales floor.

Let’s be fair here: consumers have been looking up product info on their phones instead of looking for a sales clerk. But now you can download an app like Target’s or Radio Shack’s, which are designed to give you more in-store info, and scan a barcode in Walmart or Best Buy to instantly look for a better deal.

And with Amazon’s, heck, with all the items they have in their inventory, you could walk around Walmart all day and fill your Amazon shopping cart.

So what’s there to do? Pretty much nothing, since the new consumer is on a budget.

David Wolfe, creative director at retail consultancy The Doneger Group, said this week at the Retail Marketing Society’s Christmas 2010 Retail Forecast Conference in New York, that teens may buy the latest fashion trends after Christmas, meaning merchants need to make their spring inventories ready sooner than later.

But he also said something that may be true in most households right now: Price is the new fashion trend.