Having a Mobile Retail Content Marketing Strategy Is about More than Just Online Sales

skyword.com

Mobile retail marketing isn’t just about Internet sales—a savvy retail content marketing strategy also drives traffic to brick-and-mortar stores. Once customers get inside, the right mobile marketing tools can even help push them to purchase.

As mobile content evolves, consumers are more and more frequently reaching for their phones as their most trusted “shopping assistants,” Google reports. That and other findings are revealed in new research from Ipsos MediaCT and Sterling Brands for Google, which analyzed the purchasing behaviors of over 6,000 smartphone shoppers.

As in-store shopping assistants, smartphones serve multiple purposes: They reduce the risk of buyer’s remorse, and they raise the bar for sales associates, since consumers expect better and more accurate information.

ACCORDING TO THE RESEARCH:

• Sixty-eight percent of shoppers said they were happier with store purchases when they researched products online before purchasing
• Seventy-one percent of shoppers said they expect sales associates to find information faster now, because of smartphones
• Nearly half of shoppers say they browse retailers’ own sites or apps in-store

Home Depot is one great example of how a retailer can move in-store sales with a top-notch app. With its smartphone app, the brand takes its “More saving. More doing.” message on the go. The app allows users to buy items and pick them up in-store later, create shopping lists, view detailed store maps to help them find the items they need, scan items by barcode, and read reviews.

The app also features shopping tools such as a decking project planner, mulch and top soil calculator, and paint color center.

All these tools offer consumers major utility. They also serve as storytelling tactics for Home Depot’s larger mission: to help customers dream about and complete projects. Their mobile app “enhances the value of the box” store, and stores that do it right can use the mobile to enhance their brick-and-mortar business, notes Jose Alvarez, a Harvard Business School marketing professor, in Forbes.

Smartphones as shopping assistants could evolve further with iBeacon technology, which would allow retailers to interact with consumers via an app when they walk into the store, for example.

With smartphone penetration continuing to grow, brands with top mobile retail content will spring ahead of the pack. A mobile retail content marketing strategy can help brands make the right play in an increasingly device-dominated world.