The increasing importance of mobile commerce in shopping is pushing gowing numbers of retailers to hyperlink (or ‘deep link’) content across their platforms, such as enabling purchases directly via emails.
In the build up to the Christmas shopping season, retailers are hoping increased connectivity and automation between their distribution services will speed up transactions, while helping to establish their mobile sales platforms.
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David Yu, chief product officer at online marketplace One Kings Lane, San Francisco, said: ""Whether visiting from a computer, smartphone or tablet, we’re always focusing on giving our shoppers a great cross-platform experience with One Kings Lane."
The company have revealed an updated app for iPhone, which allows users to browse and shop for items directly through their emails.
"In the case of our iPhone app users, we streamlined the experience of accessing the app so that they can enjoy the robust features offered in our latest release, including high resolution images, product zoom, and now shopping by category," Yu added.
High-profile deep-linkers are not restricted to internet-based companies such as One King Lane, but also include high-street giants such as British luxury fashion brand Burberry, and American multinational Nike.
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By GlobalDataBurberry has launched emails containing video links from which customers can pick items to and proceed to check-out directly, while Nike has integrated has integrated its running-tracker application, Nike Plus, with regular in-app emails advertising its products.
However, deep-linking has not been hailed universally as a trouble-free advertising and marketing strategy, with some highlighting the risk that the increased message volume may leave consumers feeling overwhelmed and hassled.
Erich Joachimsthaler, chief executive officer and founder of New York-based consulting business, Vivaldi Partners, is among those advising caution.
"Just because you can direct a consumer from an email to an app to purchase, does not mean you should," he warned.
Joachimsthaler added: "The smart marketer identifies the patterns of purchase or shopping of consumers, deeply understands the consumers’ needs and wants and then helps consumers to take care of the shopping or buying process that benefits both the consumer and marketer as well."
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