Mobile Marketing

Retailers have an array of digital marketing tactics at their disposal: email, SEO, local search, PPC, display ads, social media, etc. These are frequently combined with traditional marketing tactics such as print, direct mail and trade shows. It's important to select the right media mix to drive profits, and that's why I want to review some of the latest digital marketing trends and their impact on retail success.

M-commerce is a critical part of any retailers' multichannel offering. Here are some numbers revealing how important a good mobile offer is to today's consumers, from Foolproof's 'Going Mobile' study.

These days it seems like everyone has a smartphone. As more and more people continue to rely on their mobile devices, retailers have been under increasing pressure to develop a mobile site and/or app that's intuitive, innovative and, of course, thumb friendly. Welcome to Retail Online Integration’s Mobile Mania Tuesday! Each week, we'll select a retailer and discuss its approach to mobile strategy and integration.

Modell's Sporting Goods has added a mobile component to its MVP loyalty program. The sporting goods retailer is using Key Ring Reward Cards’ mobile coupon and customer acquisition platform to introduce mobile into its loyalty marketing mix for its 150 retail locations. Key Ring provides a mobile acquisition and notification channel that catches consumers when they're primed to enroll in loyalty programs.

IBM’s fifth annual Online Retail Holiday Readiness Report has uncovered that 2012 may just be the year of mobile. Based on data from more than 500 U.S. retailers, the report found that online mobile sales increased 88.8 percent in the second quarter of 2012 compared with the same quarter in the prior year. IBM is forecasting that mobile sales will reach 20 percent of total online holiday sales this upcoming season, and that mobile traffic will close in on 25 percent. However, despite the growing trend in mobile shopping, social is lagging, according to IBM.

Based on the e-tailing group's audit of 168 metrics on 50 mobile sites, the mobile shopping experience has shown strong improvements in overall efficiency of the experience with more consistent cross-channel branding and evolved merchandising, coupled with a proliferation of promotional tactics. A more direct connection between the mobile consumer and their closest store location facilitates shopping the consumer's way.

Unless you've been living under a rock lately, you know that showrooming is one of the hottest topics in retailing. Consumers are increasingly using their smartphones to shop online for better deals while standing in store aisles. Macy's just announced an innovative approach of using its audio system speakers to market to consumers already standing in-store. What makes Macy's approach so interesting is the speed and affordability of instantly implementing mobile marketing across hundreds of stores. 

Cyber Monday was the busiest shopping day last year. Up 29 percent over 2010, Cyber Monday's purchasing surge was no doubt due to a number of deals offered by retailers. And with the deal the U.S. Postal Service is planning for online merchants this holiday season, Cyber Monday 2012 could be even better.

Signature, a mobile app company that bills itself as the "ultimate personal shopping assistant," is looking to re-engineer the way consumers shop in stores — namely, the stores of upscale clothing retailers. The San Francisco-based startup has partnered with Neiman Marcus to develop a custom iPhone app to better facilitate communications between stores and consumers.

Swedish furniture retailer Ikea is continuing its mobile advertising push with a new interactive promotion that helps consumers find the products they need for the upcoming school year. The company is running the mobile ad campaign within Pandora's iPhone application. Ikea has relied on mobile advertising in the past to help drive in-store traffic.