Gilt Groupe betting on mobile shopping’s ‘mCommerce’ future

Mobile shopping — call it mCommerce — has crossed the $1 trillion a year threshold and analysts say by 2016 $31 billion in purchases will be made using mobile devices.

That was the setup for representatives of flash fashion retailer Gilt Groupe to visit the BKTK Meetup Tuesday to talk strategy for their mobile sales division.

• mcommerce is the largest growing sector for Gilt Groupe, said Gilt’s mobile vice president Yonatan Feldman. Its business model of flash sales is built into a push notification and on-the-spot purchasing culture that is embedded in mobile adoption.
• This summer Gilt Groupe started having mobile specific deals, which they will grow. As early as 2011, Gilt saw 15 percent of its revenue coming from mobile and climbing rapidly.
• More people are making purchases from their phones and tablets than ever before and the company is investing in making sure the design and user experience is “exceptional,” said Dominique Essig, vice president of product management. This spring, Gilt rolled out an updated Android app that has been part of its focus on putting mobile first.

Though Gilt is headquartered in Manhattan and in 2010 expanded its major warehousing facility to Kentucky, it still has its major shipping offices at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.