3 Proximity Marketing Trends that Retailers should Watch Out for

business2community.com

The rapid adoption and usage of mobile devices has now expanded consumers’ openness to brand engagement early on in their path-to-purchase. A recent ‘Mobile Audience Insights Report’ released by NinthDecimal, a leading mobile audience intelligence company highlighted the fact that there is currently a huge gap between the the type of proximity marketing messages preferred by shoppers and the type of messages served in-store.

For example, while 61% of shoppers prefer to receive proximity marketing messages on offers in-store, only less than half receive such messages. Similarly, while 42% of shoppers want in-store notifications that keep them informed on the products on sale, only 28% actually receive them. This essential discovery points towards the fact that retailers could boost their proximity marketing campaign ROI by tailoring their notifications to match consumer preferences.

With more than $138 million expected to flow in through retail sales this year at stores that have leveraged beacons, it is highly critical that retailers understand the complexities and opportunities to make the most of a successful proximity marketing campaign. In this post we will discuss about proximity marketing trends that retailers should watch out for this year.

1. In-pocket Phone beaconing:

Image Source: sapientnitroblog.com

Most retail beacon implementations of today require shoppers to interact with a mobile app. These proximity detection devices then send content and offers to the mobile device of shoppers based on the current location of the shopper. One of the main drawbacks of this kind of beaconing is that if the shopper fails to engage with his or her phone in-store then none of the proximity marketing messages will be received.

To solve this challenge, SapientNitro recently introduced passive beacons that tap into mobile devices in a pocket or purse and leverage location information along with past behaviors to personalize content on nearby in-store screens. This novel in-store approach demonstrated at NRF Big Show earlier this month helps shoppers make buying decisions without ever having to use their phone.

A beacon deployed at the entrance of the store triggers the store’s app to identify the loyalty profile of the shoppers way before they approach an in-store screen. The screen will then play a video highlighting a particular product or product category based on the loyalty profile of the shopper approaching the screen. Shoppers can also interact with the screen by tapping on it to see the relevant product in different colors and sizes.

2. Requested Beaconing:

With requested beaconing, beacons are all set to bring another twist to in-store shopping. This new kind of beaconing where the consumer essentially asks to be beaconed, is being tested in many GameStop stores across New York. Contrary to how beacons are currently installed far from the shoppers view at the store entrance or on a ceiling of a particular section, beacons at GameStop are prominently installed at the consumer facing game racks.

The idea behind this is that, instead of pushing messages to game shoppers based on their location in-store, GameStop wants its shoppers to bring their phone near the beacon, if they want additional product information. On bringing their mobile device near the beacon on the rack, the proximity-detection device will trigger the relevant messaging in the GameStop app. With 26% of shoppers reported to be under the impression that retail staff is poorly informed, such easy-access to pull content is a great customer service value proposition.

3. iWatch Beacons:

Though iWatch won’t hit the markets till spring, few retailers are all set to be ready from day one. Marsh Supermarkets recently revealed that it has installed iWatch-ready beacons in all of its 75 stores. Once Apple Watch hits the market, the brand plans to send beacon-triggered reminders such as pulling up a shopping list once inside a store, straight to shoppers’ wrists.

The supermarket Marsh also plans to track coupon redemption and sales data by linking the mobile offers  delivered to an iWatch to the loyalty program of a shopper. This data can then be used to measure crucial analytics such as the time between when a shopper first saw an ad to when he or she checked out.

Thus, retailers all over are now trying to leverage beacons to employ proximity marketing campaigns that will help enhance in-store shopping experience like never before. However, inspite of all the hype around proximity marketing, there is very little actionable information on doing it right. To solve this challenge Mobstac have come up with a new ebook ‘The A to Z of Proximity Marketing with Beacons’. It includes a a Do-It-Yourself proximity marketing worksheet that will help you gain a better understanding of how it works.

What comes next after we're done with the Internet of Things?

pocket-lint.com

What's going to be the next big thing after the Internet of Things? It might be a massive trend right now, but once the standards have been cracked and every device and appliance you own is connected to the cloud and each other, eyes will be looking to the future.

Indeed, company research and developments labs are already working on exactly that, even though it seems that we're only at the beginning of the Internet of Things revolution. For consumers at least.

Intel's Genevieve Bell is already thinking about the next step.

She is an Intel fellow and vice president of Intel Labs, as well as director of User ExperienceResearch at the company, so is clearly on the cutting edge of trying to figure out what's next.

Leading a team of social and computer scientists, interaction designers, and human factors engineers, she has a good view of the world of tech, not only from a traditional technology standpoint, but also from a humanistic stance as well.

With that in mind, we asked her what she believed was coming after the Internet of Things. And while she didn't say "killer robots" as we'd hoped, a la Terminator, robotics was actually a big element in her answer. As were virtual reality and the overall tech experience.

Of all the possible "next big things" Bell believes they will be the three main categories that will dominate future technological trends.

Job seeking, not killer robots

The first is really about how we see robots and how they will adapt and fit into our lives. We aren't talking Nexus 6 androids from Bladerunner, but more like those helpful service droids that are popular in science fiction movies, such as Star Wars, Fifth Element and iRobot. They will be doing the jobs we hate or find dull.

In reality, many of us already have robots in our houses; a robotic vacuum cleaner, for example. That number is only likely to grow further (Dyson is launching its robot vacuum cleaner later this year). And machine learning is advancing rapidly. So while your household robot might not be a cleaner per se, the concept of robots replacing menial tasks in the home and the workplace is to be expected.

"Machine learning will play a big part," explained Bell. "The robot piece becomes interesting when you don't look at androids, but about things doing things for you physically."

It's no wonder then that Google is quietly buying up robotic and artificial intelligence start-ups around the world. Companies like Intel are investing heavily in the area too. But while it might seem exciting to have your housework done by a mechanoid, there are some that highlight potential issues too. Bell points towards research by management company McKinsey that will make some stand up and panic.

According to McKinsey anywhere up to 140 million full time jobs could be replaced by cognitive computing by 2025, with an economic impact of $5 - $7 trillion (£4.6 trillion).

Robots might not kill you, therefore, but they might steal our jobs.

Virtual reality

The second theme that could be significant is virtual reality, although Bell thinks it could just be a flash in the pan based on the excitement of the industry at the moment.

The anthropologist believes that the interesting play here is the content and gaming aspect, but acknowledged that we've been talking about VR for a long time and there are worries over the fact that it still hasn't taken off.

From the early Hollywood versions seen in films like Lawnmower Man to more recent examples, such as the head-up displays in Tony Stark's Iron Man helmet, the studios' love affair with VR has fuelled technology companies' eagerness to make it a reality. But while they have been in development for several years now, Oculus Rift, Sony Morpheus and the rest are still to bring the concept to market for consumers. At least in significant fashion.

Experience

Perhaps the most interesting response from Bell about future tech trends is that rather than a completely new genre, the Internet of Things will mutate into something far bigger.

"What do you do with the data?" mused Bell over the current application of the Internet of Things. "How you can go about the next making sense of the data?"

Basically, if you can create algorithms that use the data gleaned from connected devices in a meaningful fashion, the future looks exciting.

We aren't just talking about enhancing and developing the simple recommendation algorithms used by services like Netflix, where when you watch something it recommends something you'd also like. Nor are we talking about enabling Amazon to give you better "also buy this" results. The future of tech that will influence each and every one of our lives will rely on systems that use data that is already being created. It is about how that data can reveal our wants needs and daily routines. And be used to improve our lives in a good way.

"I'm not convinced what is the next big thing is an 'object', it is increasingly about experiences," said Bell.

She has a strong point, after all, we love our phones because they do something for us, not simply because of the phone itself. It will be the companies that can capture and deliver experiences above and beyond what is on offer now that will win in the long run. It's all well and good knowing how far you ran, what you ate for tea or how many times you've flushed your toilet today. It is about how the devices you subsequently use improve those activities.

Bell summed it up nicely. "The interesting question isn't what's next, it is what we can do with what we've got right now," she said.

Mobile payments 5 for 5: Focus on digital wallets

mobilepaymentstoday.com

If you look over to the right on this page, you’ll see the trending section that tracks the most-read news items and feature articles. We also track the most-read topics indexed on Mobile Payments Today, and every month, contactless/NFC payments and mobile/digital wallet top the list.

The first month of 2015 was no different from what we saw last year on Mobile Payments Today.

For better or worse, Apple Pay is always a well-read topic on Mobile Payments Today and Double Diamond Payments Research Senior Analyst Rick Oglesby wrote a blog post in January about how he believes Apple killed the digital wallet with Apple Pay. The post garnered close to 12,000 pageviews as Oglesby argued why Apple Pay will dominate the mobile wallet industry.

Another blog post of note came from Euromonitor International’s Michelle Evans. She implores merchants to have a mobile wallet strategy to reach their customers anytime and anywhere. And one of the biggest benefits retailers often cite about mobile is the ability to reduce costs.

Panasonic, which some people identify as a consumer electronics company, made some significant news on the site in January when it introduced a new mPOS terminal at the recent National Retail Federation Big Show trade conference.The tablet features an integrated EMV reader (no separate dongle needed) with a PIN pad, a mag stripe reader, and the ability to accept NFC-enabled mobile payments thanks to an antenna that runs around the device.

5. "Why merchants should adopt a mobile wallet strategy" - Michelle Evans, senior consumer finance analyst at Euromonitor International, states her case for why retailers need to have a way to reach consumers anytime and anywhere.

There has been no shortage of hype around the potential for in-store mobile payments — and for good reason. A mobile-enabled environment provides many benefits for players across this ecosystem.

For merchants of all types, a mobile wallet has the potential to boost revenues and reduce operating costs. One of the most often cited benefits of mobile payments by retailers and foodservice operators is the ability to reduce costs. This may be accomplished by lowering fraud loss and/or payment processing fees — the latter of which is often cited by merchants as the biggest expense after labour. In addition, mobile wallets may be able to move more consumers through the line more efficiently and thus drive revenues. If a merchant is able to leverage a mobile wallet to provide an immediate connection with its consumer base, mobile wallets may have the ability to help a merchant sell more goods and service during slow times by enticing its consumer base with discounts and coupons.

Read the rest of the article.

4. "Panasonic gets into mPOS market" - Company debuts the Toughpad FZ-R1, a tablet that features an integrated EMV reader and is also capable of accepting NFC-enabled mobile payments.

Panasonic is not the first company that comes to mind when you think about the current mobile point-of-sale market. But there it was last week in New York City at the National Retail Federation Big Show showing off the latest entrant into a crowded space — the Toughpad FZ-R1.

Panasonic touts the device as the first of its kind: a seven-inch, all-in-one mobile POS tablet running Windows 8.1 for retail environments. The tablet features an integrated EMV reader (no separate dongle needed) with a PIN pad, a mag stripe reader, and the ability to accept NFC-enabled mobile payments thanks to an antenna that runs around the device.

The tablet's most desirable feature might be its design, which is modeled after Panasonic's line of rugged laptops and tablets that are meant to be used at construction sites and similar environments. The Toughpad FZ-R1 is designed to take a beating in a retail environment that might not be suited for a consumer tablet.

Read the rest of the article.

3. "Omnichannel banking: A consumer-first, not bank-first, experience" - Fırat İşbecer, Monitise SVP of sales and operations, examines some ways banks can build a successful omnichannel strategy and how mobile can influence it.

When you hear the word 'bank' you might think about the ATM outside your office, your local bank branch, or even visions of old movies with cops and a robber.

The reality is that banking actually extends much further back in time as bank branches were established as early as the 14th century. During this period, they were the only consumer touch-point for banks, with no other channel vying for a customer's attention. You could say that this banking ecosystem was the total opposite of the omnichannel experience.  

This unichannel approach was challenged with the technological improvements introduced in the 20th century. The first ATM was introduced in 1967. Banks opened their first call centers in the early 1980s, which later evolved into interactive voice response (IVR) systems. Banks began to provide online services in the mid-1990s and mobile services in the early 2000s. With this, banking gradually evolved to have an omnichannel structure.

However, the biggest issue with the banking system in the 2000s was that the customer experience remained immovable and prescriptive. Now it’s time for the customer to expect the experience that’s right for them.

Read the rest of the article.

2. "Payments in 10 years: Very different" - If the last 10 years has taught us anything, it's that disruptive technologies can shift the course of events in a way few would expect.

The payments industry has gone through some pretty rapid changes over the last 10 years or so, but just where will we be a decade from now?

Analyzing recent trends and estimating where these can take us is part of the process, but can only take you so far. If the last 10 years has taught us anything, it's that disruptive technologies can shift the course of events in a way few would expect.

Read the rest of the article.

1. "How Apple killed the digital wallet" - Rick Oglesby, a senior research analyst for Double Diamond Payments Research, explains how Apple Pay changed the outlook for mobile payments.

After years of watching quietly while Bling Nation, Google, Isis/Softcard, PayPal and others tried and failed to popularize the digital wallet, Apple finally launched its product in October. What’s the impact? The concept of the digital wallet is now dead, and it’s been replaced by the physical-digital wallet.

The traditional leather wallet is a storage mechanism for consumers’ cash, credit, debit and loyalty cards and coupons. The first generation digital wallet, starting in the late 1990s with PayPal and eBay, was a software solution that provided convenient way to store cards for repeat online purchases.

Once the iPhone came about and mobile commerce began to take hold, Apple extended this model to iTunes, and Google followed with Google Play, both providing a software solution for repeat online purchase via the mobile device. Braintree and Stripe extended this even further, capturing the in-app and mobile transactions that took place outside of iTunes and Google Play.

How Marketers Can Keep Pace As Mobile Rises And Matures

marketingland.com
Columnist Soo Jin Oh reviews mobile trends over the 2014 holiday season revealing the power of mobile for e-tailers and e-commerce.

2014 was by far one of the most successful years in e-commerce sales and one of the first times we saw mobile contribute a significant amount to overall spending growth.

This trend particularly rang true during the 2014 holiday season, as mobile traffic accounted for 45% of all online traffic from November-December. The mobile activity positively affected retailers’ sales numbers, which were up more than 25% on mobile devices over the same time period in 2013.

Analysts predict that the trend will continue as consumers reduce desktop and in-store purchases, especially as mobile devices become easier to shop on and retailers put more dollars behind mobile strategies.

Here’s a look at why we saw the surge in mobile throughout the 2014 holiday shopping season and ways to continue mobile’s momentum in the New Year and as we look forward to the next Q4.

Rising Tide: Mobile Continues Its Swell

Early data from the fourth quarter of 2014 produced by IBM shows record breaking activity for mobile, with online traffic from mobile devices surpassing desktop on Thanksgiving Day and accounting for nearly 50% of all online traffic on Black Friday.

Amazon reported that more than half of their customers used mobile devices to shop over the holidays, while large brick and mortar retailer Walmart climbed 84% over the past year. Walmart also saw more than 70% of web traffic come from mobile devices between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday.

Ravi Jariwala, a spokesman for Walmart, recently told USA Today that Walmart operates with the assumption that 100% of their customers have smartphones, which explains why the retailer has focused so much on its mobile app. The widespread adoption of mobile devices is forcing brick and mortar retailers to invest more heavily in mobile strategies so that they can compete with larger scale e-commerce brands.

On Christmas Day, IBM reported that desktops still managed to capture the most dollars with nearly two-thirds of online sales. 2014 trends show that consumers are browsing across mobile devices, but still purchasing on desktops. While mobile gets traffic, desktop continues to reign in actual sales.

The next phase of the mobile revolution will focus on conversions, which will likely be driven by advances in mobile payment options and more consumer-friendly mobile applications.

Making More Out Of Mobile

2014 marked the year for more sophisticated and enhanced mobile-friendly sites and applications. Marketers didn’t just focus their marketing efforts on app downloads, but they built experiences for user engagement.

In the past, payment processes and shipping have been a big pain-point for consumers who are looking to complete purchases on mobile devices and receive their goods quickly; but this year, retailers recognized that to compete with large e-tailers, strong mobile payment platforms and free shipping have to be incorporated into their marketing plans.

Flash sales, daily deals and mobile coupons were the primary types of mobile promotion used during holiday season. Target, which was ranked as one of the retailers with the most site visits in the U.S. for 2014 by eMarketer, used its digital offerings to rack up a record-breaking holiday season.

Cartwheel, Target’s digital coupon app, added 2 million new users over the holiday period, and Black Friday weekend purchases made via mobile phones were two times higher than 2013.

The 2015 Mobile Experience

Although marketers have evolved and matured the mobile user experience from research to the purchase process, there is still more room to grow in terms of mobile reach and conversions. Mobile is no longer specific to a certain demographic or age group, which means that brands now have the freedom to test different creative ads and messaging to determine what delivers the highest ROI.

Now is the time to be using multi-variate testing and incorporate a higher number of data sets to optimize for future holiday campaigns. Making mobile a more prominent channel for reaching a wide range of customers will significantly grow mobile’s role in sales and marketing. For some brands, that means investing and improving mobile apps and for others, it means optimizing for mobile web experiences.

On the conversion front, marketers will have to find ways to turn mobile interactions into transactions. Cross device targeting will help in its ability to make messaging consistent from device to device, putting more relevant ads and promotions directly in the hands of current and potential customers.

If this past holiday season taught us anything, it’s that the now is the time for marketers to focus on improving shopping experiences on mobile screens and building a loyal customer base for holiday season 2015

The Future of Marketing: 90% of Marketers Say It’s All About Getting Personal

mobilemarketingwatch.com

On Thursday morning, MMW was briefed by a representative from Teradata Corp., the big data analytics and marketing applications company, regarding the firm’s 2015 Global Data-Driven Marketing Survey.

The survey, in short, is an international study into trends surrounding data-driven marketing adoption and enterprise business value.

The new study is a sequel to similar research Teradata Marketing Applications conducted in mid-2013, and reveals “dramatic shifts since that time in how companies and marketers are deriving business value from data, integrated marketing platforms, and customer-centric data-driven marketing strategies.”

Among the myriad of eye-opening findings, one of the most notable is that having individualized insight is increasingly important to marketers. According to the report summary shared with MMW this morning:

• 90 percent of marketers say making marketing individualized is a priority.   They want to move beyond segmentation to true one-to-one personalization in a real-time context.
• Faster, more accurate decisions are key benefits of using data for nearly two-thirds of respondents.
• 38 percent say their biggest challenge is improving customer acquisition and retention. Marketers’ second-biggest challenge is proving support of corporate objectives (29 percent) and meeting regulatory compliance was third (26 percent).

“It is clear from these survey results that the future of marketing is all about meeting the expectations of the individual consumer.  Today, more than anything else, marketers want access to trustworthy, individualized insights based on credible data, so the expectations of every customer can be known, respected and met on a personal level,” says Darryl McDonald, president of Teradata Marketing Applications.  “Today’s digital marketing platforms make this possible.  We encourage marketers throughout the world to implement and improve their data-driven marketing strategies to create business value through individualized insights.”

App Marketing: What Channels Will Be Most Effective in 2015?

appdevelopermagazine.com

At the beginning of each year we all read articles with predictions on pretty much any subject - mobile is 

no exception. Famous hockey player Wayne Gretzky once said, “A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be.” 

As a guy who has been a part of an app marketing agency for the last 5 years, I constantly apply this principle to app marketing by analyzing patterns and predicting what will work tomorrow.

To be able to predict what app marketing techniques will work in 2015, we need to take a look at what techniques worked in 2014. We’re talking about a vast, mobile apps marketplace and it’s impossible for an app marketing channel to pop up from just anywhere. It needs time to mature and be adopted if it demonstrated its efficiency, or to be thrown away if it did not. So - what mobile user acquisition channels worked last year? 

Facebook Mobile App Install Ads

Launched by Facebook back in October 2012, over the course of 2 years Facebook Mobile App Install Ads grew from “jumping on the mobile ad networks bandwagon solution from Facebook” to the best mobile user acquisition tool of today. Will it continue to be the most effective app marketing tool in 2015? 

I believe so and there are several reasons why that will be the case. As time goes by Facebook gathers more and more information about its users to provide app marketers more efficient user acquisition tools. Yes - we’ve heard about the “youth leaving Facebook” trend, which was covered in a number of articles and there are reasons for this trend. Even though Facebook is trying to appeal to a wide range of different user profiles, it’s impossible to please everybody. 

On the positive side, what do several millions mean for a billion plus social network? Facebook is being very active with acquiring companies (some with a very large price tag) to diversify its services lineup, expand its mobile ads platform and reach new users. The only warning trend that I can see for Facebook ads is that this year the social media giant may face the same issue that web display began to suffer from many years ago - people will get sick and tired of Facebook Ads. 

A recent Fiksu study gives us an interesting insight on Facebook Mobile App Install Ads: “Essentially, Fiksu found that mobile app ads on Facebook don’t get as many people to respond (comparing with ads on Facebook Mobile Ad Network), but those that do are more valuable to app developers over time (e.g. these people shop more on these mobile apps, or buy more virtual goods in these mobile games, etc).”

App marketers should take advantage of this insight and take it into consideration during their app marketing campaign planning.

YouTube Video Ads

Do you know that Google has a publicly available solution to drive mobile app installs via YouTube videos? If you don’t - don’t worry, you are not alone. If we look at how Facebook or Twitter promotes their solution to drive mobile app installs, it’s obvious that these companies see this solution as a major profit generator in mobile space. Though Google doesn’t think about its solution this way, not yet anyway. 

Given the overall dynamic of the mobile app marketing space, I think in 2015 Google’s YouTube Video ads will take off and become a viable alternative to Facebook and Twitter app install driving solutions. Due to the lack of awareness of this solution, not many app owners have tried it in 2014 but they will in 2015. App developers publish apps for iOS first then for Google Play because the Apple’s iOS App Store brings more profit - Google definitely wants to reverse this trend. 

Twitter Ads

There are several reasons to believe that Twitter Ads will continue to grow and become an even more effective app marketing channel.

- Indian ZipDial startup acquisition: This is a big step in expanding its user base and overcoming Twitter’s growth struggle. Given how fast mobile has grown in India, it is fair to predict that Twitter ads reach will increase in 2015.

- More targeting options including Mobile Carrier setting and New Devices: In 2014 Twitter added several important targeting options for its app install driving platform. With the Mobile Carrier setting, app owners can launch ad campaigns for specific mobile carrier smartphone users in specific areas where reception signals are strong. With New Devices app marketers have the option to launch an app install driving campaign, reaching out to people who have bought their smartphone within 1-5 months. A quick example would be launching an app’s ad campaign, optimized for iPhone 6+, 2-3 months after Apple began to ship it.

- Industry buy-in: After Q1, 2015 we should expect white paper publications from companies like AdParlor about Twitter Ads efficiency and KPI’s app marketers will be able to use as reference points to estate their own mobile app installs driving campaign expenses. 

Ad Networks

According to app marketer feedback and the recent VentureBeat research, there are 5 leaders in the mobile ad network space in terms of its user acquisition efficiency (apart from Facebook, Twitter and YouTube). These leaders include NativeX, Fiksu, Chartboost, Flurry and AdColony. Given the level of funding required to build a mobile ad network and the time that is required for a new platform to be adopted, I don’t expect any surprising debuts in the ad networks field. 

App Store Optimization

As the ASO technique continues to grow, the number of mobile app installs acquired by the App Store/Google Play search continues to grow. Third party tools like SensorTower, MobileDevHQ and others evolve and provide more efficient solutions to perform a mobile app keywords optimization. 

On the other hand, Apple does improve the App Store search, though not as fast as mobile app marketers would like. Recently Apple introduced Trending Searches, Related Searches and a new section on the App Store called Discovery, which actually brought an extensive list of sub-categories to make the app store navigation easier.

How Starbucks became dominant in mobile payments

untether.tv

I don’t think there was a single person on the planet that thought Starbucks could be the model for mobile payments and yet they are. I’m also pretty sure that no one would have predicted that they would become the most pervasive and most used mobile payments app on the planet either, yet they are. How did they do it? Chuck spells out their strategy – the things they did do and, more importantly, the things they didn’t. Starbucks…who’da thunk it?