5 Brands That Have Mastered The Mobile Experience

Mobile consumption numbers are only going to go up, making it imperative for brands to get the experience right.

This article is part of CMO.com’s February series about mobile. Click here for more.

Consumers are now spending 5 hours per day on mobile devices. Let that sink in.

Now know that consumption numbers are only going to go up, making it imperative for brands to get the mobile experience right. Below, we take a look at five brands that are setting the standard for what makes an amazing mobile experience.

Starbucks

The Starbucks app makes this list because it provides a quick and easy way to pay with your phone at Starbucks locations. The company reports that 27% of its sales come through mobile ordering. And the app is evolving with the times: The company added AI-powered voice-ordering capabilities within the Starbucks mobile iOS app, enabling users to speak their orders. In addition the app lets users earn and redeem rewards, such as free drinks and food, to keep them coming back for more.

Asos

The Asos mobile app provides a great example of a seamless experience. Besides the fact its product pages are enhanced with comprehensive product information and photos that can be viewed from multiple angles or colors, users can begin shopping on the app and then continue right where they left off later via desktop. Their data syncs to their Asos account for access anywhere.

Here’s the really cool part: The app uses computer vision to enable users to perform visual searches. Users can snap or upload a photo of an outfit into the app and get search results with clothing that is similar in style.

Pandora

The beauty behind Pandora’s app is that it gives listeners a personalized music experience that continually evolves with their tastes. Users can create personalized stations and browse through recommended music. Subscription-based, ad-free versions of the app let users search for and play music, and also download it to listen to when offline. Pandora currently has 73.7 million active listeners, 5.19 million subscribers, and 91% of users listening via mobile.

ColourPop

ColourPop, a global cosmetics company, is using AI-powered product discovery on its mobile site. Two people might start out looking at the same screen, but as they browse and click, the experience becomes tailored. Since implementing the tool, ColourPop has seen a 4% uplift in revenue per visitor.

“The biggest thing about mobile shopping right now is if you don’t know what you’re looking for, discovering that is really difficult,” said Nate Dierks, ColourPop’s director of technology, in a statement. “This has given me a lot of thought about the purpose of the mobile website: It needs to be just a stripped-down discovery page that shows you what other people are looking at, what’s popular, what’s about to sell out, and what you should know about this brand.”

Ikea

With Ikea Place, Ikea’s augmented-reality application, shoppers can virtually place products into their homes to see how they’d look—perhaps a sofa for the den.

“Ikea Place makes it easier to make buying decisions in your own place, to get inspired and try many different products, styles and colors in real-life settings with a swipe of your finger,” said Michael Valdsgaard, leader of digital transformation at Inter Ikea Systems, in a statement last September. “Augmented reality and virtual reality will be a total game changer for retail in the same way as the internet. Only this time, much faster.”

The app automatically scales products based on room dimensions. It’s so precise that users can actually see the texture of various products and how light and shadows will render on existing furnishings.