Latest Kentico Digital Experience Research Shows 85% Use Smartphones to Comparison Shop; 44% Will Never Return to Sites That Aren't Mobile Friendly

NASHUA, N.H., May 28, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Kentico Software, the Web Content and Customer Experience Management provider, today unveiled the results of a new Mobile Experience Survey designed to shed light on how online shoppers are continuing to evolve in the way they interact with brands on mobile devices.

According to the survey—part of Kentico's ongoing Digital Experience Research—85% of smartphone owners use their mobile devices to compare companies, products and pricing before making a purchase. Of those, 45% will do so from a store's actual location. But whether or not an online shopper clicks 'buy' isn't solely dependent on products or pricing: 78% of smartphone owners, 75% of tablet owners and 69% of laptop owners say it also comes down to the look and feel of a company's mobile website.

But while more shoppers are warming up to the convenience of mobile, if given the choice, 63% would rather shop in a store's physical location than via the Internet. Furthermore, when given a choice, online shoppers seem to prefer larger screens over smaller ones, with mobile device preference shrinking along with screen size. This may also be attributed to the many businesses who have not yet invested in sites that are optimized for mobile. When asked which devices typically provide the best shopping experiences, 48% said on a computer, 40% on a laptop, 9% on a tablet, and 3% on a mobile phone.

"Our survey suggests that while shoppers like the convenience of shopping online via mobile devices, they still want as much of an in-store experience as possible," said Kentico CEO and Founder Petr Palas. "While it may be impossible for businesses to provide mobile shoppers with a 100% in-store experience, they need to make mobile shoppers 'feel' as if they're truly in their stores, touching their products, talking to sales reps, and being catered to. Otherwise, they will lose business to those sites that do."

To be sure, 76% of smartphone users and 78% of tablet users return often to websites that look good and work well on their mobile devices. When visiting websites that aren't optimized for mobile, 44% will never go back and 52% won't return often.

"This goes beyond what businesses actually do and sell online," continued Palas. "If their sites aren't mobile friendly, people who are out and about will forge new brand relationships with competitors, and they'll take these relationships back home with them to their computers. When it comes to making and breaking customer relationships, it's all happening on mobile devices."

The Kentico Mobile Experience Survey is the second installment of an ongoing Kentico Digital Experience Research series that was kicked off earlier this year with the Kentico Customer Experience Survey. Among the latter survey's highlights: Word of mouth (28%), company websites (25%) and in-store experience (18%) weighed most heavily on strengthening or eroding brand affinity. Striking a new chord on the issue of privacy in the digital era, that survey also found 69% expressing an overwhelming eagerness in allowing the collection of their personal data in exchange for more customized service.

More than 300 US residents 18 years old and over participated in the Kentico Mobile Experience Survey, conducted online during the month of April, 2013.

About Kentico CMS
Kentico CMS is an enterprise Web Content Management System and Customer Experience Management System that provides a complete set of features for building websites, intranets, community sites and e-commerce solutions on the Microsoft ASP.NET platform on premise or in the cloud. It supports mobile websites, SEO, document management, online marketing tools, multilingual websites, multisite management and it ships with 70 modules, 400 configurable Web parts and source code available. 

Kentico CMS customers can expect a highly flexible platform with a uniquely easy-to-use user interface. It's currently used by more than 16,000 websites in 90 countries.  The clients include Microsoft, Guinness, Chiquita, Vodafone, O2, Orange, Brussels Airlines, Mazda, Ford, Subaru, Isuzu, Samsung, Gibson, ESPN, DKNY, Abbott Labs, Medibank, Ireland.ie and others.  

About Kentico Software
Kentico Software (www.kentico.com) helps clients create successful dynamic websites, intranets, community sites and e-commerce solutions using Kentico CMS for ASP.NET. It's committed to deliver a full-featured, enterprise-class, stable and scalable Web Content Management solution on the Microsoft .NET platform. Founded in 2004, Kentico is headquartered in the Czech Republic and has offices in the United States (Nashua, NH and Seattle, WA), United Kingdom (Reading) and Sydney (Australia). Since its inception, Kentico has continued to rapidly expand the Kentico CMS user base worldwide. Its partner network consists of 1,200 partners in 80+ countries. Kentico Software is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner. In 2010, Kentico was named the fastest growing technology company in the Czech Republic in the Deloitte Technology FAST 50 awards. In 2012, Kentico Software was named global Microsoft Partner of the Year Finalist in the ISV/Software Solutions Industry category.

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SOURCE Kentico Software