It might be five golden rings, for retailers that are using a variety of mobile methods to connect with customers. Crowds, swarms, phones, Location Based ‘attractors;’ mobile shopping and advertising is on the rise.
Mobile promo methods from Scanbuy, Foursquare, Gowalla and more are starting to show really interesting numbers. For example, the AdvertingAge magazine had a ranking of companies that are using and benefiting from these mobile promotions; the who’s who of retail (from Macy’s to Walmart) portending the trend forward.
People are not just checking out stores, promo codes, etc., but transacting. Some firms have set up a whole channel for this, such as eBay, which is showing marked increase in inquiries and sales thru this channel across the country (see map below).
Many of these promos are delivered through a variety of Social Networks such as Twitter, where retweets explode the visibility of the promotions.
Channel upon channel, opportunity exists here to get promotional related information through the mobile networks, phone apps, content deliverers and social networks.
A few alternatives that are taking off are:
- Location based ‘check-in’ like Foursquare, that senses you in your location and then drives information to you.
- Subscriber apps/loyalty programs that users put on their phones.
- Social networks that users subscribe to on the cloud, but that deliver personalized messaging from Twitter, LinkedIn, and SMSs, etc.
- Internet apps that connect users to shopping sites, promotional sites where they can download coupons, apps, codes, etc.
- Scan/QR registry and linkages.
The Value? It’s the Data!
Beyond attracting buyers into the stores, the data will be the opportunity of this generation. What and who are these flocks in the crowd, and how do we keep them coming? So much to leverage in order to enrich the Demand Management process!
To view other articles from this issue of the brief, click here.