How Retailers Can Capitalize On Mobile
By Samir Addamine, FollowAnalytics
Retailers are trying to make up for lost time — and regain lost customers — by creating high-tech offline experiences that match the ease and convenience of e-Commerce. However, despite the fact that more and more retailers are focusing on the e-Commerce experience, relatively few have turned to native apps to try and attract customer interest. As people continue to get comfortable with the idea of carrying out transactions on their phones, smart retailers will make sure that every potential purchasing journey, whether it’s on the mobile web or in a mobile app, is able to give the customer the personalized, seamless, and cohesive experience they desire.
In 2018, Forrester released a report estimating that smartphones would be responsible in some way, whether as a research tool, way to compare pricing, or method of purchase, for over one third of all retail sales in the U.S. During the 2018 holiday season, the biggest shopping period of the year, mobile platforms were responsible for 51% of the traffic to retailers’ web sites, as well as nearly $42 billion of spending.
But at the same time, mobile users can be fickle. Research from Google indicates that those who have a negative experience while browsing a mobile site are 62% less likely to make a purchase from that brand in the future compared to those who have positive experiences. In other words, it doesn’t matter how good your marketing is or how beautiful your site looks on desktop; if you don’t offer your users a good mobile experience, you won’t be getting their business.
Now, you might be asking, what is the benefit of having a mobile app versus a web site optimized for mobile? Why spend twice the amount of money and effort to build two separate things that essentially fulfill the same function? The answer is that both are equally important. People will most likely end up navigating to your mobile web site first, but a mobile app can help encourage brand loyalty while increasing the amount of time that a person spends engaging with your product. On top of that, having a mobile app will help retailers make their offline experiences more relevant and engaging to users, as they will have the opportunity to tap into data on their customers’ preferences and habits.
Let’s take Starbucks as an example. They arguably already have a good deal of brand equity, along with loyal coffee drinkers who don’t need any additional encouragement to visit a shop. But those who have the app are treated to a whole range of exclusive deals and games designed to encourage them to visit the shops more often. On top of that, the Starbucks app also allows users to order their drinks ahead of time and pick them up from the nearest location. It’s possible that Starbucks also could provide such an experience on their mobile web site, but it’s so much simpler to design an app that can support such functionality without being limited to the constraints of a smartphone browser.
In fact, Starbucks’ app, which also doubles as a payment system, is responsible for more than 40% of in-store mobile payments, more than Google, Apple, and Samsung Pay; eMarketer estimates that more than 23 million people paid using the app in 2018 alone. While not every app needs to have that kind of functionality — and indeed, most of them shouldn’t — Starbucks’ success shows the benefits of having a native app.
Another advantage to having an app available for download is that there’s a better chance of the brand remaining top-of-mind. Whenever someone scrolls through their phone, they’ll see the icon and immediately think of the brand, whether or not they’re looking to make a purchase at the time.
An ideal app helps bridge the divide between online and offline channels. They also help retailers gather a more complete idea of their customers’ needs and habits, from the products they’re more interested in buying to the circumstances that will cause them to go into the store. In the case of Starbucks, users ultimately have no choice but to go into the physical location to pick up the product they’ve ordered. But for other retailers, many of whom are struggling with maintaining foot traffic to their stores, being able to convince people that there is an advantage to shopping in-store, whether it’s a financial or experiential one, is vital.
Samir Addamine is a serial entrepreneur driving innovation in the mobile apps industry. Prior to founding FollowAnalytics, he was a senior executive at Framfab, part of Publicis, where he built mobile apps and developed mobile strategies for enterprise companies, as well as a founder of mobile agency Clicmobile. At FollowAnalytics, Addamine has overseen the company’s inclusion in Gartner’s first Magic Quadrant report on mobile marketing platforms, as well as the development of the company’s mobile data wallet and new mobile app development platform.