In recent years, brick-and-mortar retailers have grown increasingly weary at the sight of customers showing up at their stores with smartphones in hand.
Apps now let shoppers make price comparisons on the fly. Scan a barcode, and you can immediately find out where the product on the shelf can be found cheaper. The result: Hordes of shoppers visiting retail locations to "showroom" -- test out a product in the store, then go home and buy it online at a lower price.
It's a problem that retailers are scrambling to address this holiday season, and a couple of retailers will even take the potentially costly approach of offering to match the prices of online competitors like Amazon. But some experts suggest that a smartphone-equipped shopper should be seen not as a problem, but as an opportunity.
Hey, Big Spender
That's especially true in light of the latest iteration of Deloitte's annual Christmas shopping survey, released last month. The survey found that so-called omnichannel shoppers -- those who shop both in-store and online -- will spend 71% more this holiday season than store-only shoppers, with an average expenditure of $600 on gifts.
Why this should be the case isn't entirely clear -- it may simply be that those with smartphones and tablets are in a higher income class, and thus have more disposable income to throw around at Christmastime. But as smartphone penetration has soared over the last five years, it has become less of a signifier of income.
Rather, it may simply be that consumers are more likely to make a purchase if they're able to convince themselves that they've researched their full range of options and prices.
"The folks that use the omni approach as a consumer -- checking prices, using social media, reading reviews – maybe they feel more comfortable spending," says Joe Welter, a partner in Deloitte's retail practice.
Whatever the cause, there's little doubt that this is a market segment that retailers should be eager to please. And that means tailoring their sales approach in a way that gives these savvy consumers the multichannel convenience to which they're accustomed.
"The smart (retailers) early on have adopted an omnichannel vision that says you can buy online and pick it up in-store," says Welter. "Or you can see it, feel it and touch it in the store, then go to a sales associate and they'll ship it with gift wrapping."
The former approach is seen at most retailers with an online presence, allowing consumers to get the convenience of online shopping without having to pay shipping fees. (Walmart, for instance, offers free site-to-store shipping on most items.) And the latter is also on the rise. Take Target, which has fully embraced smartphone-equipped shoppers by putting QR codes on select items; shoppers with Target's app can scan a QR code, buy the product online and ship it anywhere for free.
Deals, Deals, Deals
Other retailers are wising up to the fact that the smartphone in that shopper's hand is another channel for delivering promotional offers.
Walmart's mobile app, for instance, embraces omnichannel customers in a number of ways: You can shop Walmart's website through it, or if you prefer to shop at your local store, it will show you the aisle numbers of the items on your list. And it also recognizes the value of letting customers get promotional offers from their smartphones. The app lets you find your weekly ad, and also lets you "clip" coupons of your choice for use in store.
Unfortunately, it's not a totally convenient process. Rather than letting you simply bring up the coupons on your phone while you shop, the app emails you a link to your clipped coupons. You must then open the email on a computer, install a printer plug-in from Walmart.com, then print them out and bring them to the store.
But others are offering a more seamless experience. Coupons.com, which carries codes and printable coupons for supermarkets and department stores alike, announced Wednesday that it's integrating with Passbook, one of the new features of Apple's iOS 6. Intended to relieve some pressure on your overstuffed wallet or purse, Passbook lets you store everything from boarding passes to movie tickets to gift cards and coupons on your iPhone or iPad.
While the Coupons.com app doesn't yet integrate with Passbook (there, as with Walmart's app, you'll still need to email and print at home), the mobile site works well with the new feature. If you have iOS 6 on your iPhone or iPad, visiting the site will show coupons from a variety of retailers that accept coupons on phones; clicking "Send to Passbook" will do just that, and participating retailers -- including Barnes and Noble, Macy's and Old Navy -- will be able to scan the coupon right from your phone.
That's convenient for consumers who don't want to physically clip coupons, and like the idea of grabbing deals while they're standing in the store. But it's also a boon to retailers. "We're seeing the convergence of e-commerce and the in-store shopping experience, and as long as the opportunity to save online and in-store is equal, consumers are very happy to make that purchase (in the store)," says Coupons.com CEO Steven Boal. "And if they can have a fluid experience, they're more likely to buy."
And more and more shoppers are seeking out ways to get deals on their phones. In survey results released recently, price-comparison site PriceGrabber found that 70% of shoppers intend to download and use coupon apps this holiday season.
Of course, price is still going to be the bottom line for many consumers, and particularly savvy shoppers with the full range of price-comparison apps might still go home and buy on Amazon or another e-commerce site if they find a lower price even after couponing.
But as J.C. Penney has learned the hard way, the promotional value of coupons and special offers can't be underestimated. If retailers can seamlessly deliver those offers directly to a customer standing in the store, that customer is a lot more likely to make a purchase on their way out.
(Source: Matt Brownell, Daily Finance, 10/24/12)
Brands such as Coca-Cola, Hertz and Starwood are increasingly turning to mobile as a way to reach consumers at live events. The medium's portability makes it a natural fit for connecting with fans during live shows and serving as a real-time link with other digital marketing platforms.
In a recent presentation at the IAB's Mobile Ad Marketplace conference, Russell Wallach, president of Live Nation Network, discussed the close link between mobile and concert enthusiasts. Based on a new study of some 2,000 Live Nation customers, he noted that almost two-thirds own a smartphone and a third (34%) have a tablet -- both figures far higher than the average.
Since last year, the company's mobile traffic has jumped from 9% of all traffic to 23% as of May, while ticket purchases via mobile have risen from 0.3% to 5.9% in the same period. "Smartphones and tablets are creating more buying opportunities for our product," said Wallach, calling them "the driver of our business long-term." He added that Live Nation launched its first app about 18 months ago.
While its mobile users tend to have somewhat lower household incomes than its overall users ($85,000 versus $94,000), he said they are more active customers. Mobile users buy 24% more tickets per year, spend 16% more on tickets a year and go to 29% more events annually. They are also slightly more male and younger, with an average age of 36 compared with the overall ticket buyer's average of 42. They tend to be iPhone and iPad users.
Search plays a key role in driving business in mobile for Live Nation. In that regard, more than a quarter (27%) of people who attend live events search for related information on their smartphones, with 7% regularly using their phones to purchase to buy tickets.
Wallach stressed that mobile has become a key part of sharing the live concert experience, with 42% of smartphone owners using their devices to do things like sharing photos (75%), texting (63%), 40% connecting with friends on Facebook, and one-third calling friends from shows. That activity in turn opens up additional marketing opportunities tied to events.
Plus, mobile can help a brand like Coca-Cola drive on-site promotions at concession stands or other venue locations, he said. Wallach pointed out that a number of companies employ simple marketing programs using location-based services. Coca-Cola brand VitaminWater, for instance, has run a campaign that offers the chance to win upgraded concert seats in return for checking in at a venue via foursquare.
But he also suggested that creating a one-time app that integrates different screens -- including those at an event location -- is more effective than creating a traditional integrated promotion. "What years ago may have cost three or four times more to figure out the activation" can now be done with few additional resources, according to Wallach.
Looking ahead, he said Live Nation aims to broaden its use of emerging mobile technologies, including near field communication and augmented reality to power m-commerce. The entertainment company is also exploring the use of geo-fencing at venues to be able to deliver targeted messages and offers on behalf of advertisers.
(Source: Online Media Daily, 07/16/12)
Chaos. If there's a single word to encapsulate today's digital environment, that one clinches it. The dizzying pace of change has been hard to keep up with (never mind get ahead of) from every perspective: Channels and platforms. Devices and tools. Customer behaviors...and expectations.
For marketers, the challenge is to understand how to best manage the chaos, and that is a do-able proposition. It takes a strategic orientation that is grounded in five key tenets. Making these the basis of your approach will result in a powerful pathway to better customer engagement and better harness both the chaos and the power that digital represents.
1. Your customers, engaged -- your story, amplified
The digital environment is a milieu characterized by shared ownership in your brand by you and your consumers. You can't control what's being said about your brand here, so focus on what you can control: what it stands for. The better its promise and positioning are focused, defined, and communicated internally and externally, the better you will be able to encourage consistent storytelling about it by your customers.
2. Know the customer "fragments"
Digital tends to create a marketplace of people with multiple personalities, which makes the challenge of targeting much more complex. An individual may have multiple identities on Twitter, share their professional persona on LinkedIn, and on Facebook, reveal another persona.
Telling the right brand story requires an understanding of the multiple dimensions of the individual, and figuring out which one you want to connect with.
Just remember. Your audiences are allowed to have multifaceted online personalities. Your brand, however, can't afford a fragmented identity.
3. Don't rush to follow
Digital is a relentless and omnipresent environment that has dramatically altered how we consume and share information. It can be overwhelming. If you respond well, you can capitalize on the opportunity to make your brand a bigger part of customers' lives -- but you must be very clear on your digital strategy. There's a risk of getting caught up in (and overextending your resources on) the hot new channel or capability of the moment.
Understand which insights matter by truly listening to and assessing the data to design a strategic approach that is aligned to your brand and your target customer. Remember: Missteps are less tolerated in this realm, as there is a permanent digital footprint.
4. Integrate the CMO and CIO roles
Digital intensifies the need to break down organizational silos. It takes both marketing and technology know-how and capabilities -- bound by respect for the medium -- to envision and activate the most effective digital strategies.
Marketing and technology capabilities must work together to create the best possible outcomes. This means that marketers and their IT counterparts must increase their understanding of the interplay between technologies, how they work, and how they are best utilized to create customer experiences that drive the brand and business forward.
5. Measure not for Klout, but business impact
The impact of digital strategy is measured in ways that traditional media is not -- via a stream of data that can be analyzed to continuously fine-tune and refine approaches for maximum impact. Ultimately, however, metrics must connect back to business impact. But the reality is that nothing in digital exists on its own.
Mobile links to social media, which in turn may link back to a company Web site. The trick is to ensure that linkage models are being used to measure the effectiveness of the digital strategies -- especially considering the fuzziness of some digital measurements (like Klout and "liking"). It's better to link those digital measures to traditional ones like awareness, consideration, and conversion.
The explosion in digital has created an exciting and challenging environment for society and culture. The marketer's imperative is to learn how to manage the chaos to grow deeper customer connections and successful businesses.
(Source: Chiaki Nishino, Marketing Daily, 06/27/12)
Sending one-way communications to consumers on mobile devices or optimizing a website for mobile is no longer good enough. Brands must now be able to optimize mobile channels in a way that enables consumers to make purchases, track pricing and comparison shop whenever and wherever they wish to in order to remain relevant.
That includes mobile versions of websites, as well as custom mobile apps.
According to a February 2012 Consumer Electronics Association M-Commerce Forecast, 90% of consumers own a tablet, a smartphone or a cell phone. Of these consumers, 37% are engaging in some form of mobile commerce. On average, consumers spent $642 on mobile purchases in the past 12 months -- a whopping $124 billion overall -- the report revealed. The Internet spawned e-commerce, and in the past few years, the iPhone has spawned m-commerce.
A differentiated approach
Perhaps no company better understands the value of m-commerce than Staples. The company invested in a new mobile commerce site, M.Staples.com, in 2011, as well as new mobile apps. The redesigns came roughly a year after the company invested in its first ever mobile site and app.
In January, Staples said it would open an e-commerce innovation center in Massachusetts, designed to bring new ideas to market in m-commerce and social media, and in early February, the company launched a new website optimized for tablet browsing. Staples partners with technology vendors Skava on the tablet site, Expicient on the mobile apps and Usablenet on the mobile website.
The new M.Staples.com features a shopping cart that synchronizes in real time with a user's Staples.com cart, a GPS-powered store locator, store inventory look-up and enhanced on-site search, including an auto-suggest feature. M.Staples.com is designed more for research, while the apps are meant to facilitate commerce, says Staples' mobile strategist.
"Between a smartphone and a tablet, tablets are more transactional in nature," says Prat Vemana, director of mobile strategy at Staples. "We brought out the convenience of reorders for the tablet redesign, (including) faster checkout and the ability to access rewards. We've optimized it for transactions. The mobile site is optimized for research."
Walmart also uses its mobile site to enable product research and purchase preparation. The company launched its first mobile site and apps in 2010 and has since made several upgrades. Currently, the mobile site offers product details, customer ratings and reviews, and pricing information.
Walmart's iPhone app enables consumers to add items to a shopping list by speaking, typing or scanning bar codes. Consumers can use the app to calculate total price in real time as specific items are added to mobile shopping lists, and they can find the in-store aisle location of products in select stores across the country.
"We're at an exciting time of transformation, both for our customers and our business, as we move into the next generation of retail that integrates online, social, mobile and our physical stores," says Paul Cousineau, VP of mobile products, Global E-commerce at Walmart. Although he would not reveal sales or traffic data, he says mobile apps drove "significant traffic" to Walmart.com during the holiday season in 2011, and many of the shoppers were customers that had never previously purchased on the site. Walmart launched its first iPad app last November.
Amazon.com is widely recognized as the inventor of the mobile commerce space. The online retailer built its first m-commerce site in 1999 and its first apps in 2008. The company uses a distinct approach for each mobile channel.
"It was important to include meaningful and familiar aspects of the Amazon experience (on mobile sites) like one-click purchasing, customer reviews and wish lists," says Sam Hall, director of Amazon Mobile. "We also offer mobile applications tailored to specific devices to make the shopping experience faster and easier."
Amazon has apps for the iPhone, Android phones, Kindle Fire, iPad, Blackberry and Windows Phone 7. Unlike mobile websites, apps enable consumers to do things like access the device's camera for barcode scanning and use voice input as an alternate search method, Hall says.
"We designed our Amazon mobile app so that a customer could both search for and find a particular item, and (then) buy it within a very short period of time," Hall says. "This means the design had to be simple and 'glance-able' at first view, but still offer a path to more detailed product information."
Not every brand goes out of its way to develop an original mobile site. Gavin Masters, e-commerce delivery manager at Hallmark, says his company's m-commerce site is an optimized version of the company's website. The retailer works with EPiServer, a content management company, to integrate their commerce platform across channels. While many industry experts bang the drum for a complete re-architecting of m-commerce sites, Masters says that can result in endlessly chasing new technology. "By the time we get around to re-architecting, the devices change," he says. "Today's mobile browsers are a lot more accommodating of standard sites than they have been.”
Hallmark instead focuses its resources on mobile apps. Masters says the company has "double-figure apps internationally (and) five or six in the U.S." Hallmark's Story Buddies app is designed for consumers that have already made a Hallmark purchase, in order to engender loyalty. The app features interactive stories and games designed to "enrich the (customer) experience."
Hallmark's mobile transactions increase each year. M-commerce transactions comprise roughly 10% to 15% of all of Hallmark's e-commerce transactions.
A seamless experience
Although many retailers prefer differentiated approaches to how they develop and optimize mobile sites and apps, Michael Murray, CMO of e-commerce and online at Sears, says his company offers a seamless and uniform experience across all devices.
"Whether m-site or mobile apps, we're really agnostic...We're looking to make sure that the customer experience is continuous and integrated," Murray says. "Mobile phone, PC, tablet, all of those expressions should be consistent and uniform to help that customer. It takes a lot of hard work to help the customer in that way, but it's worth it." He says Sears' goal is integrating online with mobile and physical stores. "Mobile is a bright tile in that mosaic."
While Sears optimizes its sites to offer similar experiences, it does acknowledge that consumers' mobile device use differs from PC behavior. Since 2010, the retailer has enabled consumers to order an item on a mobile device and pick it up at a retail location within five minutes. Prior to the holiday season, Sears launched a similar policy for returns.
Craig Shields, VP of e-commerce at Jewelry Television, says his goal is to ensure a consistent experience across mobile and online devices.
"There's a number of companies that have standalone, siloed solutions that can get to market fast, but there can be differences in inventory results, search results and shopping carts," he says. "We wanted to provide a consistent experience so that the shopping cart online and on mobile is the same."
Jewelry Television partners with Demandware on its e-commerce platform, which Shields says Jewelry Television was able to extend to mobile platforms.
"Consistency is important," Shields explains. "Any customer with an iPhone probably hasn't had one for more than two or three years. It's still a new experience for shopping online. To interact and find that the online website and the mobile website aren't the same is an unfriendly experience. Plus, internal costs, complications and inefficiencies (are an issue)."
Jewelry Television launched its m-commerce site and apps in 2010 and is in the process of developing an iPad app, which Shields expects to launch this summer.
Ken Mowry, SVP of digital marketing and customer engagement at Charming Shoppes, says his company focuses solely on the mobile site. The company does not have a mobile app and Mowry is skeptical about whether apps will ever play a major role in generating mobile transactions.
"We have not launched an app experience primarily over the concern over low adoption rate," Mowry says. "There's an (industry-wide) 70% drop-off after the initial app download. Unless you come up with a unique app experience, it's a challenge to get customers to come back to it."
Instead of spending valuable resources on an app that Mowry thinks consumers will download once and then discard, Charming Shoppes focuses on customizing its m-commerce experience on smartphones and tablets.
Charming Shoppes works with e-commerce platform provider Fry to optimize and tailor its various m-commerce offerings. It launched its first m-commerce site last year, and, in that time 10.5% of its e-commerce revenue has come through mobile, 7% of which came from tablet shoppers.
Sunglasses retailer EyeSave has also foregone the app route in favor of focusing on m-commerce sites. It works with e-commerce technology services provider Mercent to handle its data feed to third-party sites like Amazon. Mercent optimizes those feeds for the best mobile performance.
"We priced out some options for building (a mobile site) from the ground up and we thought, why don't we try this (Mercent partnership) out and see if we're doing well," says EyeSave president Darren Lilien. "We have been getting sales through it." He would not offer more concrete figures.
New investments
Several brands recently made or planned to make their first m-commerce investments within the past six months. PriceGrabber, which has dabbled in mobile apps, built its first mobile commerce site in November. Tim Fernholtz, senior product manager at PriceGrabber, says the new site is "everything on our (e-commerce) site, but basically in a mobile version."
The mobile site, which was built in-house, is different than PriceGrabber's e-commerce site in that it offers location-based features. The company also launched the DealGrabber app for iPhone in November, which enables consumers to view aggregated deals from daily deals companies.
PriceGrabber is working on technology that will enable consumers to discover more information about any product on the market by snapping a picture of the product on their mobile device and then submitting it to PriceGrabber. Fernholtz says the technology will be available for the holiday season.
Private sales site, Totsy.com, generates more than 20% of its traffic on its m-commerce site. However, the company recently began a two-to-three year mobile strategy that includes the March introduction of custom-made social- and community-based mobile apps for the iPhone, iPad and Android, says Christophe Garnier, cofounder, president and CMO of Totsy. The company is working with Diaspark to develop the apps, which Garnier says will enhance the company's "shop and share" philosophy.
Reebok-owned The Rockport Co. launched its first m-commerce site two months ago. The footwear retailer built the site to be compatible and accessible across different devices to maintain a consistent user experience.
"We kept the layout simple, the navigation intuitive, (with) touch screen features and prioritization of content so our customers are not overwhelmed," says Kimberly Correia Hunt, head of e-commerce at Rockport. "Growth rates in mobile usage, ownership, traffic and revenue is far outpacing the growth of desktop e-commerce sales."
(Source: Direct Marketing News, April, 2012)
Suzanne Mumford, Google product manager, cited those numbers from a recent presentation by Eric Schmidt. She said Android activates 850,000 phones daily running the operating system, and one-third of mobile searches have local intent, meaning people searching for nearby businesses.
Google has launched an initiative to help businesses build a mobile Web site and strategy, GoMo. Google is offering companies help in Web development and hosting space.
Some 79% of large online advertisers still don't have what Google considers a mobile-friendly site. A recent Google webinar supported the GoMo campaign. When asked during the webinar how many businesses on the call have built a mobile-friendly site, about 42% said yes and the remainder said no.
It turns out that 53% of Americans own a smartphone. About 95% use smartphones to search, 77% in a store, 43% while commuting to work. I am one of those 13% who pull out their smartphone to search on something during a conversation to look for a business, confirm facts, or further thoughts in a conversation.
Consumers engage and purchase more from mobile sites, according to Google. Consider these stats. Fifty-one percent of consumers are more likely to purchase from retailers that have mobile-specific Web sites. Research has shown that Web retailers could increase consumer engagement, such as time on site, by 85% with a mobile-specific Web site. And 40% said they would visit a competitor's mobile site instead. Those Compuware numbers from "Why the mobile Web is disappointing end-users" are from a year-old study.
Since then, Google and Microsoft have opened the doors to more features for mobile ad campaigns, such as targeting day and time.
For Google, it's part of its GoMo strategy. Drive consumers to a mobile-friendly landing page, separate mobile from desktop campaigns, use mobile-specific keywords, and rely on made-for-mobile ad formats.
To make a point, Mumford shared data from Roy's Restaurants mobile site. She said the company achieves 800% return on investment with hyperlocal advertising and mobile-only campaigns. After realizing that mobile traffic outperformed desktop traffic in click-through rates and cost per clicks, Roy's created a separate mobile-only campaign to maximize the number of calls and clicks, using hyperlocal location extensions to better target mobile customers.
The results stated in the report include achieving "800% ROI on mobile-only campaigns, drove 40% more calls, hyperlocal mobile ads had a 539% higher CTR and 67% cheaper CPC compared to previous desktop campaigns."
How many times have you had a conversation with someone in person and reached for your smartphone to consult?
(Source: Laurie Sullivan, SearchBlog, 03/15/12)
