Mobile Web as Value-Add.

Andrew Koven leads ecommerce, mobile commerce, mobile marketing, and social media and direct marketing strategies for fashion brand Steve Madden. Koven spoke with eMarketer’s Tobi Elkin about the evolution of Steve Madden’s mobile web strategy, recent mobile initiatives and why fully integrating mobile strategy with ecommerce and physical stores is critical for retailers.

eMarketer: What is Steve Madden’s approach to mobile commerce and mobile marketing?

Andrew Koven: We take a multichannel approach. In 2010, we focused more on testing our mobile strategies across our stores, website, mobile commerce platform and social channels. We looked to engage in marketing activities to build greater brand and product awareness.

For 2011, we believe this approach will continue to help us drive more sales of Steve Madden products and open conversations with our customers. We also leverage mobile and social strategies to an even greater extent.

eMarketer: How is Steve Madden using mobile to attract the 19- to 34-year-old women it wants to build a relationship with?

Koven: The key is to be where our customers are. Increasingly, our customers are using mobile to research, comment on and shop for our products. We’ve made it very easy to do these things.

“Our future success will depend on our ability to maintain one-to-one relationships in real time, which is what mobile is bringing to retail—speed and heightened expectations.”

We actively promote our mobile site on our website, send emails and collect mobile sign-ups for the “Join Steve Madden Mobile” campaign at point-of-sale. Our mobile database currently has over 110,000 members and is growing weekly by 2% to 3%. Our future success will depend on our ability to maintain one-to-one relationships in real time, which is what mobile is bringing to retail—speed and heightened expectations.

Mobile and social media are the always-on, on-demand platforms through which our customers can communicate with us. We’re obligated to respond in real time. The retail stores, website, email database, mobile site and mobile database all need to come together to maintain the conversations that represent best practices. Mobile is where consumers can raise their hands and talk with us and we can talk with them.

eMarketer: Can you offer an example of a mobile initiative that addresses the consumer’s journey through the purchase funnel—from awareness, engagement, consideration, conversion and loyalty?

Koven: An industry peer tells me about a well-known store conversion statistic that applies to most retailers. It’s called the 10-4-1 problem. Of 10 customers that walk into a store, four of them intend to buy. Three out of four of those consumers walk out empty-handed and only one of them buys. The retailer’s job is to convert three out of four nonpurchasing intenders.

Retailers have tried many different in-store solutions to this problem. Most retailers know that the reason these intending purchasers don’t buy is that they couldn’t find anything they like. Our “Favorite Things” campaign was set up to address this path-to-purchase challenge.

Over a three-week period, we invited customers via email, in-store video screens, mobile messaging, Facebook and Twitter to tell us their favorite things. We had multiple platforms for sign-ups and to drive awareness, engagement and consideration. We gave customers the opportunity to select and review the items. We grew our mobile database 4% and drew over 5,000 participants. We also learned more about their preferences in the process. Our goal is to recognize these consumers based on their purchasing patterns and influence.

“We address loyalty by connecting with consumers via mobile and social media to develop closer bonds across various points of contact and in time, integration will take hold.”

We address loyalty by connecting with consumers via mobile and social media to develop closer bonds across various points of contact and in time, integration will take hold. We’re hitting the mobile customer who can purchase directly over our m-commerce platform, the in-store customer who’s receiving this information via mobile text or is just on the mobile site while shopping.

eMarketer: What percentage of your ecommerce traffic is coming via the mobile channel?

Koven: Between 7% and 10%. At the end of 2010, we were seeing between 10,000 and 15,000 visits to our mobile site per day, and about six to seven times that number of page views per day. That’s fairly significant. Last year almost 10 million minutes were spent by consumers on Steve Madden’s website and over $1 million in revenue was generated directly.

eMarketer: Where do the foursquares, Gowallas, shopkicks and other location-based rewards apps fit in to your vision?

Koven: Location-based services and content are strategically very important. We’re interested in delivering content and information, events and lifestyle enhancements that bring the consumer closer to the Steve Madden brand—those are most important. You can’t count on rewards-based offers and discounts only.

“We’re looking to create more lifestyle-oriented contests and branded opportunities that enhance the experience for the consumer—whether they’re in the store or not.”

Rhetorically speaking, what is a reward, for whom does it apply and when should retailers provide it? We’re looking to create more lifestyle-oriented contests and branded opportunities that enhance the experience for the consumer—whether they’re in the store or not.

We’re looking to inspire and entertain our customers so they understand the Steve Madden lifestyle and communicate with us. When we look at social media engagement with our customers via mobile and in-store, we see that they’re really strong brand advocates. We want to recognize, reward and engage those advocates.

eMarketer: From your perspective, what is the key to a successful mobile web strategy for retailers?

“You have to ask: ‘Why are we doing this? What are our objectives?’”

Koven: Retailers need to define their goals. For certain brands it’s more about sales. For others, it’s about general brand awareness. You have to ask: “Why are we doing this? What are our objectives?”

You need to understand who your audience is. For instance, we think our brand lends itself well to lifestyle information so we offer styling assistance—tips on what to wear with a certain product and how to wear it. We have a very clear vision about how we can integrate all our marketing and mobile efforts to be of service to our customers.

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