Timberland Moves Faster on Mobile Commerce

Timberland is striding into mobile in a big way, with a mobile-optimized website that went live in late August and a series of live events featuring enhanced product information via QR codes kicking off on October 19.

"We’ve been hearing about the emergence of mobile for some time. Smartphones obviously changed everything quite dramatically and we felt that getting a mobile-optimized site was the next logical step," says Heather Frost, North American commerce manager for Timberland. She adds that the company already has seen positive results in sales since the mobile site went live.

The mobile optimization project was handled by Branding Brand, one of Google's two Commerce Search resellers announced on Wednesday. Says Chris Mason, Branding Brand co-founder, "If you haven't tried it yet, or your experience was bad, you might not realize, but mobile commerce is taking off. There are millions of dollars flowing through mobile."

In fact, Google expects to see $2.5 billion in mobile ad revenue this year, while Forrester expects a compounded annual growth rate of 39 percent from 2011 to 2016 for mobile commerce.

The Timberland "Sundance Film Festival Style Night Out" events pair winter boots from the Timberland Fall 2011 collection with tips from industry style experts. Through a partnership with Lucky magazine, all guests attending Timberland Style Night Out events will leave with a copy of the Lucky and Timberland "A Stylish Season" trend booklet, featuring QR codes linking to Quick Click Custom Videos about style.

Frost says, "We have started using QR codes more frequently over the past year primarily in emails, print and in our Specialty Stores. We know consumers increasingly use their mobile phones while consuming other media and that the adoption of QR codes continues. We want to leverage QR codes to deepen the brand experience from print through other digital content for consumers who want more information about the Timberland brand and our products."