Mobile Marketing

Sephora continues to show that it's a leader in mobile retail with its latest effort to build hype for the store's loyalty program through in-store signage. The beauty and cosmetics retailer is using several different creative, in-store signs, giving a call to action through mobile to promote its loyalty program. In doing this, the Sephora mobile app has been given new features, allowing it to be easier to use to shop in-store and online. 

Amazon.com said this week that it's adding push notifications to its web services for developers, reflecting the significant growth in the mobile application market and related services. The fully managed service is cloud-based as well as cross-platform, meaning developers can tap it to send notifications to iOS, Android and Kindle Fire devices. While push notifications is a growing area, it faces challenges including other mobile messaging tools such as SMS and how to avoid annoying users with too many messages.

For omnichannel retailer QVC, social shopping isn't so much about the platform consumers are using (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.), it's about consumers talking with each other about shopping via word-of-mouth. For example, "I like that shirt, where did you get it?" That's social shopping, according to Alex Miller, the vice president of e-commerce at QVC. Miller was a keynote speaker yesterday at the eTail East conference in Philadelphia.

Gap wants to create a "pop culture moment" for its fall Back to Blue campaign, and it's turning to Tumblr to create it. On Monday morning, Gap issued a call on Tumblr for creators to share, through an original piece of content, what "blue" means to them — blue being, of course, the color of Gap's logo and its signature product, the blue jean.

It's not for a tablet. That's what you should be thinking about when you're designing your tiny little product page, with its tiny real estate to work with on the tiny screen. "Tiny" is relevant here because you have an important internal decision to make, one that many other companies are dealing with right now with budgets, short-term tactical implementation and long-term strategy. Should you have different product pages for smartphones and tablets?

You trust food trucks to fill your stomach, why not let shopping trucks fill your closet? Whether you need beachy espadrilles, some bold Thierry Lasry sunglasses or a last-minute mani-pedi, there's a store on wheels for every fashion and beauty desire. And the drivers of this trend say they'd rather be on the road than parked at a brick-and-mortar. "I never really wanted to start a store," says the Styleliner founder Joey Wolffer, 31, who jump-started the mobile shopping movement by converting an old potato chip delivery van into a high-end boutique in 2010. 

Are you ready for back to school? Because retailers are. Wal-Mart and Apple are already promoting school-related products, while others, including tween brand Justice, are touting steep discounts. "In seven-and-a-half years, I've never once seen so much emphasis put on back to school before July 4," said National Retail Federation Spokeswoman Kathy Grannis. Historically, most consumers begin shopping for back-to-school supplies three weeks to four weeks before school starts. And retailers have typically followed their lead, beginning promotions in mid to late July. This year, however, they're trying to get a jump on consumers’ spending.

As a retailer, you know you have to capture prospects’ attention to make a sale. That's why advertisements use eye-catching graphics. But now more than ever, consumers tend to ignore traditional ads and focus instead on the screen in the palm of their hand. An advertising strategy that leverages this tendency is likely to deliver dividends in increased sales, and a truly forward-thinking approach can produce other valuable benefits for both the customer and the retailer.

Only a few years have passed since retailers finally became comfortable with their transformation to e-tailers. Now they must shift their point of view again, becoming what we might call "see-tailers," as the physical retail store assumes the role of a showroom, with consideration selection and transactions all conducted online through smartphone apps or mobile websites. Rather than visit stores to compare prices or find new styles and products, consumers are using stores to see, touch, taste or smell a product they've already targeted, then are leaving to order the item online.

Mobile Commerce Daily reports that 44 percent of shoppers wil not return to a site unless it is optimized for mobile. The study from Kentico Software also reports "that 85 percent of smartphone owners use their mobile devices to compare companies, products and pricing before making a purchase."