Retail
How to effectively market to moms using QR Codes
Despite the fact the women, as a whole scan QR codes less than men, (at least according to comScore May 2011 data) the word about QR codes is starting to spread with moms. Mommy blogs, magazine articles and television are all buzzing about the latest in convenience for busy moms. That’s what it’s all about when marketing to moms sometimes. See sample article on Techmomogy
The beauty of the QR codes is that they can help marketers transition smoothly into a robust mobile strategy. As over 60% of moms now have smartphones, developing a credible mobile strategy is a must for most consumer brands. Sixty percent is a big number and while most moms are just getting used to using their smartphones to check email, many more have mastered emailing photos and video and posting mobile updates to their Facebook pages. Moms, in fact, are leading the way in smartphone adoption!
Integrating mobile applications into the physical retail stores
What many marketers fail to realize when developing mobile applications is that they should have in-store integration, not just mCommerce capabilities. Anyone who has spent time reviewing real shopper data, e.g., Forrester Technographic studies will tell you that shoppers still love the traditional retail stores, not just for purchasing, but for discovering new products and accessing information. To that end, a survey by multichannel platform provider CrossView shows that just 12% of large retailers offer mobile apps to their customers. Meanwhile, a study by digital measurement company ComScore shows consumers are big on using mobile apps for local search.
According to the CrossView survey of 25 retailers, including Abercrombie & Fitch, PetSmart, J. Crew and FootLocker, just 12% offer iPhone or Android mobile apps. But all the merchants in the survey offer an mCommerce site, while 28% allow customers to purchase products online via the mobile website and pick them up in store. Nearly 90% (88%) of retail mobile websites have features that allow consumers to share via Facebook or Twitter or to email a friend.
But a majority of the mobile optimized websites CrossView reviewed lacked basic features to help shoppers make purchase decisions in physical retail stores.
“Mobile must be integrated as a part of the overall cross-channel shopping experience,” said Jason Goldberg, CrossView’s vice president – strategy and customer experience, in a statement. “It’s critical that merchants avoid creating mobile silos in the same the way many brick-and-mortar retailers did with their first generation ecommerce sites.”
Meanwhile, ComScore’s The State of Local Search study, released by the Local Search Association, shows that there was big growth in mobile local search use in 2010. This past January, 77.1 million mobile subscribers accessed local content on a mobile device—up 34% from the previous year.
Local content users accounted for 33% of mobile subscribers, with 87% owning a GPS-capable handset, which is up 9% from the previous year. App use for mobile local content grew 34%, with 56% of respondents using apps for local content.
Shoppers visiting fewer stores. Future is in web and mobile devices.
These days, we’re seeing that far more shoppers are learning about products and comparing prices online instead of schlepping from store to store. Let’s use some real numbers here. In 2007 the average consumer shopped in 15 stores a month. This year that’s down to 11, which is a decrease of nearly 25%. It is paramount that merchants integrate web and smart phones into their store experience because the future of their real estate is as a showcase for products and less of a warehouse. The decline also explains why big box chains from Best Buy to Walmart are testing smaller stores and kiosks.
Product extensions now available on mobile devices
Product Extension ads: Now shoppers can see images in mobile search results. Product Extension Ads are enabled by linking your Google Merchant Center account to your AdWords campaign.When your mobile search ad appears, and your Google Merchant Center account contains products that are relevant to the searcher’s query, Product Extensions show the product images, titles, and prices of your products in a plusbox under your ad.
Product Local ads: An enhancement to Product Extension Ads, Product Local Ads show the actual availability of products in local stores along with the product image and price all within the mobile ad.
Mobile Wallets are all about the data, not the transaction
While there was much excitement over the idea of being able to pay for things by simply touching a smartphone to a payment terminal, the real value of the mobile wallets is not about the transaction at all, at least not for Google. What the Mountain View mobile giant is really banking on is the vast amount of shopper data that will produced as a result. Essentially, Google knows that transactional data will generate a ton of shopper behavior, which can be leveraged and sold many ways. With this data being real-time, Google would be able to make the information available instantly to retailers, which would allow them to offer shoppers real-time incentives based on their purchasing behavior. And since the mobile wallet doesn’t just hold virtual cash, but also mobile loyalty cards and coupons, everything would instantly be available for the shoppers.
For people that don’t have a Google phone with NFC technology built in, they can add an NFC sticker that goes on the back of the phone, download the Google shopper app and they’re good to go.
Which tactics engage shoppers the most
Interesting report from Adobe talking about the most effective campaign tactics and technology that lure shoppers. While many things are online in nature, the majority applies to mobile as well, which should give retailers and an idea of what to focus on for in-store programs. Read more.
How Ethnicity Affects Behavioral Differences in Consumers
Everyone behaves differently when it comes to media usage and buying behavior. As the all sectors (not just retail) move towards personalized shopper experiences, it’s importnat to understand the differences in behavior at an ethnic level. Nielsen reveals how consumers use the same resources differently. The findings show that African Americans watch the most TV, Hispanics are savvy smartphone users, and Asians are online centric. When it comes to retail, African Americans shop most frequently; Hispanics shop less often but spend more than others; and Asians take the most advantage of deals and promotions. Read More
Text messages: the nearly universal marketing vehicle
Source: Internet Retailer, Kevin Woodward, May 12, 2011
Few marketing channels have the utility and reach of text messaging, industry observers say.
“The appeal of text messaging is that it’s so universal,” says Mark Beccue, senior analyst at ABI Research. Almost any mobile phone can send and receive text messages, he says. This ubiquity means that retailers operating a mobile commerce program do not need to worry about developing mobile apps that run only on certain smartphones, such as an iPhone or Android device, Beccue says.
However, a retailer’s text-messaging program should not consist solely of a list of mobile numbers and sending an occasional short message, he says. There are best practices that can make text message campaigns more effective, Beccue says.
For instance, retailers should personalize the messages as much as possible based on shopper behavior. For example, a retailer might tap into a shopper’s purchase history and note how often the consumer bought a particular product. Then, as the point in that product’s purchase cycle approaches when the consumer is likely to be seeking a replacement, the retailer could send a text offering a coupon for that product, Beccue says.
To keep things simple, smaller merchants especially will want to enlist the help of a third-party vendor, says Nitesh Patel, senior analyst at Strategy Analytics Inc. That’s because many small retailers lack the resources to create a mobile-messaging program, he says.
Retailers also need to ensure their programs comply with laws governing unwanted spam texts, and would rely on vendors for this, says ABI’s Beccue. Spam complaints can lead mobile carriers to block a retailer from using their networks to send consumers text messages, he says.
Retailers drive traffic and sales with text
Up to 35% of consumers who have opted in to receive targeted promotional text messages from a retailer or brand subsequently visit that store or e-retail site, according to research conducted by Placecast Inc., a vendor of text-based marketing services.
And among consumers who visit a store or web site, up to 34% report redeeming the coupon or promotion offered in the text. Placecast surveyed a panel of consumers to understand their actions and also analyzed its clients’ redemption data and analytics to come up with its findings.
Placecast CEO Alistair Goodman says redemption rates can vary, from 11% on the low end to more than 65% depending on how appealing the offer is. “We’ve seen some outliers, as high as 65%, when a retailer delivers a great promotion for an impulse item,” he says.
Placecast clients include outdoor gear retailer The North Face and apparel retailer White House Black Market. The North Face is a unit of VF Corp., No. 138 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide. White House Black Market is a unit of Chicos FAS Inc., which is No. 129.
AT&T also entered a partnership with Placecast earlier this year to provide consumers a way to deliver messages from retailers or brands to AT&T customers when they are near store locations or stores that sell the brand’s products. A consumer within a certain geographic range of a Kmart store, for example, may receive a coupon or other offer to redeem with the retailer. Or the consumer might receive an alert from home cleaning products manufacturer S.C. Johnson about a special on its Pledge furniture cleaner at the nearby Kmart. Up to 90% of consumers surveyed indicate they find the text message alerts useful.
