Applications
Adobe Mobile Survey
Adobe releases findings on new mobile survey.
Key findings:
Mobile websites are the predominant presence of businesses in the mobile channel, accounting for the bulk of their mobile traffic and surpassing the traffic generated by downloadable mobile applications. More than 80% of the respondents said they were planning or have already deployed a mobile commerce website versus 8% with a downloadable application-only strategy.
Respondents identified four key areas of execution for their mobile strategy: 1) promotions, 2) commerce, 3) product information display, and 4) branding. Promotions emerged as the top strategic element, followed by online commerce.
Rich, full-screen image zoom and videos are the most effective ways to browse or display products, according to a majority of the respondents. Grid viewing of thumbnails is deemed most effective for browsing multiple product images.
Overall, visual merchandising features are deployed by less than one-third of the respondents. However, as many as 81% of the respondents indicated they are planning to deploy those features, suggesting richer mobile experiences will be created over the coming months. Fully 96% of the respondents ranked catalogs & brochures, alternative images, and zoom & pan as most effective.
Mobile Marketing Gaining Ground Among Retailers
US retailers are actively pursuing the mobile channel to enhance customer engagement and loyalty: 73% have some type of mobile initiative in place and 20% of are in the process of evaluating the mobile channel, according to a survey from Forbes Insights, in association with Research In Motion (RIM).
Fully one-third of surveyed retail executives describe their early mobile efforts as either widely implemented (10%) or rapidly expanding (24%).
Nearly one-half of retailers (47%) say they want to capture “first-mover advantage” as their customers go mobile, whereas 23% say they are adopting mobile to keep up with their competitors and 20% are taking an incremental approach to the mobile channel.
Below, other findings from the study, Retail’s Mobility Imperative, which surveyed more than 300 executives at top US retailers.
Retailers are now at varying levels of sophistication in their mobile efforts. Fundamental tactics such as mobile ads (35%) and mobile websites (36%) are the most common, while other retailers are moving into more customer service-related applications (33%) and transaction-based tactics, such as mobile coupons (29%).
Mobile Coupon iPhone App Sees 50,000 Downloads In First Three Days
Kuffer Marketing GmbH recently announced that its iPhone mobile coupon app, dubbed “Gutscheinbuk” or “Voucher Book, was downloaded 50,000 times in the first three days after launch — or an average of once every 15 sec. In no time at all, the app rose to become one of the Top 5 apps for Germany in the Apple App Store.
To be fair, “Voucher Book” was already a wildly popular coupon-based Website in Germany that offered a simplistic approach to offering money-off coupons, but its mobile success is still worth mention. The site had been around for the past four years and currently boasts over 7,500 active coupons that are now available via its iPhone app.
The simplistic nature of the app both from a retailer’s point-of-view and the end-user is what’s helped catapult the app to the top. A retailer that uses Voucher Book can manage its own coupons using a variety of metrics –- selecting distinct offers to be sent at different times of day, or in different cities for example. As a user, you can simply open the app and select what kind of voucher you’re interested in and Voucher Book delivers anything that’s useable within a short distance of them.
Overall, the app’s success is a boon to mobile coupons in general, which are just now starting to catch on in a big way. Whether it’s a traditional method like Voucher Book or the “Groupon” model, mobile coupons are here to stay.
The success of the app points to a larger trend. Apps that seem to have the most success tend to be mobile extensions of user’s favorite websites, ostensibly making them a CRM channel.
Aislebuyer. An app that “checks out” not “checks in” and let’s you skip the line.
While everyone has been focused on the “check-in,” a brand new LBS startup has its sights set on the “check-out” instead. AisleBuyer is combination LBS plus mobile commerce app that turns the entire retail experience — from receiving relevant offers upon entry to checking-out and paying for your items — completely interactive.
Here’s how it works: A consumer downloads the app and opens it up at their favorite store. They use the smartphone’s camera to scan the barcodes of items they want to purchase or simply research. Upon scanning, the app shows you comprehensive product information like pricing, customer reviews, etc., but more importantly, provides an opportunity for the retailer to insert personalized special offers and incentives based on what the user just scanned and other variables.
While shopping, just add the items you want to your cart and you can checkout directly from the app, with no standing in line necessary. It provides a unique comprehensive experience for the user, but also provides a powerful back-end platform for the retailer as well. AisleBuyer allows for the customization of offers including the ability to utilize the “Digital Circular and Dynamic Couponing System,” which allow retailers to personalize their promotions based on demographics, location, and shopping history.
We’ll be keeping a close eye on this one. In the meantime, AisleBuyer has offered up some interesting stats to justify its postion: the value of self-checkout transactions surpassed $775 billion in 2009 and is projected to grow to more than $1.6 trillion by 2013. Nearly 20% of all transactions are now self-checkout, according to the company.
Adidas MiCoach app says a lot about its users
“Beyond gender and age, we can tell whether someone is training for a marathon … running off road … in the city … in the rain,” said Leonardo Ligresti, vice president, Client Partner at Isobar. He added that adidas has not yet begun to tailor marketing efforts based on this information, nor can he speak to future plans — but the potential is there.
Study of how travelers use smartphones
Paradigm’s MobilePulse research service was used to conduct this study.
The study found that 39 percent of respondents selected air fare searches as one of their top three mobile uses for air travel. Meanwhile, 19 percent of smartphone users identify ticket purchasing as one of their top three mobile uses for air travel.
In addition, 15 percent said they used their mobile phones for ancillary fee transactions such as checking additional bags and upgrading their seats. “While customers wanted to use the smartphone for air, car, hotel and travel services, we did find that there was definite interest in mobile commerce as well,” Mr. Deyhimi said.
The report also found that consumers with higher incomes (more than $75,000 per year) and education levels (bachelor’s degrees or higher) were more interested in air travel-focused smartphone applications.
This does point to the theory that in the future apps will not be used as a mass marketing channels they way they are now. Instead they will be used for specific customer segments as part of an overall CRM strategy.
