With Black Friday and Cyber Monday within arms’ reach, many retailers are already gearing up for the rush of holiday shoppers…mobile shoppers that is. The mobile airwaves will be jam-packed this holiday season with shoppers looking for store locations, product information and even coupons as they scour around town for the perfect holiday gift.
Mike Gatti, Executive Director of NRF’s Retail Advertising and Marketing Association, spoke to Washington, DC FOX 5 reporter Melanie Alnwick recently about new mobile shopping trends and how retailers will attract holiday shoppers with special mobile coupons, even when they are in or near their store.
During the interview, Gatti also explains the how retailers will use of QR Codes this holiday season, the two-dimensional barcode that retailers place on products and marketing pieces which divert shoppers to websites or other locations to obtain more information about the product or promotion.
Check out the interview below:
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Mobile shopping is here to stay and it is critical for retailers to continue to watch the trends very closely. Just as Cyber Monday has fundamentally shifted the shopper’s buying habits and thereby every retailer’s marketing, merchandising, pricing and promotion strategies, it is only a matter of time before we see another paradigm shift triggered by smartphones and tablets (Ipads and likes).
As the newspaper circulation and search engine usage falls, App usage on all forms of mobile devices continues to accelerate. It is not surprising therefore that retailers are looking for ways to engage with their target customers on devices where the customers are spending a lion share of their time. Whether it is through retailer specific apps or aggressive social networking strategies on facebook and twitter, they are looking for ways to engage the customer. However, I believe the retailers that will truly succeed in this endeavor are the ones who will recognize that a smartphones and tablets present an opportunity to “personalize” the experience for each customer, and focus on building interactions around that premise.
Wouldn’t it be nice if in preparation for the holiday season, shoppers could customize the catalog on their favorite retailer’s app well in advance of the holidays and then get personalized coupons/ promos pushed to their mobile devices in readiness for holiday shopping, which only they can redeem. Look at the benefit to the retailers – not only are they able to get a solid perspective on customer demand in advance, but they can be specific about the types of coupons/ discounts/ promos based on the nature of the customer and their overall demand basket. More importantly, this creates an experience for the customer that is unique to him/ her driving greater engagement and loyalty. Interestingly all the technology components needed to make this happen exists today, it perhaps requires some out-of-the-box thinking by the retailers and their IT functions to recognize this potential.
If a retailer is able to pull this off, guess where their mobile customers will begin their shopping journey next year!!
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[...] 9 out of ten consumers (96 million people) plan to shop from home, over seven million (6.9%) plan to use their smartphone for this purpose also — and that’s even higher among consumers aged 18 to 34. Retailers [...]