There is no doubt many merchants have realized the power of mobile devices as shopping tools, and have rolled out websites and apps that have been fine-tuned to serve on-the-go customers. However, some retailers have gone beyond what is required to serve mobile customers and, as a result, they get as many as half of their sales from smartphones and tablets.

Internet Retailer noted these merchants as the “50 Percent Plus” club because the majority of their success is credited to this channel. Whereas many retailers expect only one-fifth of their sales to come from smartphones and tablets, these sellers anticipate as much as half. Here is what they do better than their peers in the mobile space:

Get people coming back regularly

Some merchants such as Groupon and JackThreads thrive on getting people to check their mobile apps daily. Both retailers began as flash-sale sellers, which is an easy niche to fill in the mobile space. People can check their phones at the drop of a hat to see if anything of interest has cropped up since the last time they looked.

Shopping experience

Although mobile devices are often regarded as a separate channel, they all have very different specifications which can lead to performance issues on older or uncommon devices. Nonetheless, merchants such as JackThreads develop apps and sites that will work on the overwhelming variety of phones.

“Largely, it is about the mobile shopping experience and the speed with which a transaction happens in an app versus a mobile web site,” Ryan McIntyre, executive vice president of marketing at Thrillist, the parent company of JackThreads, told the news source.

With recent comScore data suggesting that as many as 173 million Americans own smartphones, it is crucial merchants take mobile shopping by the horns if they want to capitalize on this opportunity.

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