Inline, Online, Off

Not All Mobile-Retail Campaigns Are Made (And Measured) Equally

This shouldn’t be a particularly dazzling insight but to many retailers and marketers, this can often be the missing piece (as per TechCrunch): Nielsen is putting hard numbers to how consumers like to shop with their smartphones… and how you use your phone has a lot to do with where you’re shopping and what you’re shopping for.

I can’t tell you the number of conversations I’ve had with CPG brand managers about putting QR codes on-pack for drugstore, grocery, or c-store promotion, where often they want the QR code to point to some branded content on YouTube or a microsite rather than, oh I dunno, a coupon (digital IRC). 

Of course everyone rolls their eyes at the QR code conversation, yet amazingly they’re perfectly appropriate and quite benign at electronics retailers like BestBuy. Nielsen’s numbers back up the behaviors: mobile coupons are most popular at grocery stores, (41% of mobile shoppers said they used coupons there), department stores (41%), and clothing stores (39%). At electronics stores, the majority (73%) read reviews, compare prices (71%), and scan QR codes (57%).

The report, which I highly recommend reading (cheers TechnCrunch), points to the role of planning in any campaign. Look at what behaviors already exist for your shoppers, then look at the instances (places, times, spaces) they interact with their mobile devices, then chip away at something useful or surprising. Perhaps you’ll even manage to create a new shopper behavior, if the experience is rewarding enough. 

We all agree, we can’t ignore the mobile shopper. As the Internet Retailer reports: Mobile shoppers make a purchase 59% more often than desktop PC shoppers and over a two-year cycle will bring in 32% more profit.

So, what motivates your shoppers? And where are they in the purchase-decision cycle or moment of intention. What information do they need? What offers would sweeten the deal? What devices do they use and do they have time to interact with mobile content while they’re in the aisle?

Here’s a good example of an apparel retailer really getting their customer (where they are in the world, on the Web, and which devices they are using) by rewarding Facebook fans via time-sensitive SMS notifications. 

Gap Inc.’s Piperlime To Open Soho Store

You know I get all brand giddy whenever Gap comes up so I was delighted to hear from the Retail Customer Experience that Piperlime, the Gap Inc. e-tailer that launched in 2006, is opening its first brick-and-mortar location this fall in the SoHo neighborhood of New York City.

While there may be some truth in the theories that stores are becoming browsing galleries, social or entertainment venues rather than transactional ones, the pop-up trend and this news seems to defy that idea.

Jennifer Gosselin, SVP and GM of Piperlime, said in a press release, ”Our customers have been asking for a place where they can experience Piperlime in person, and New York is the perfect location for this.”

I can’t wait to check out the store and I hope the opening will pay special attention to training and creating an extraordinary level of customer service, which I think is the real opportunity here. 

Oh and while I’m in my happy place talking about Gap, I figured I’d re-share these 6 Lessons From Gap’s Mobile Journey to Date, which Dave Barrowman, Senior Director of Product Management shared at the Shop.org digital retail marketing workshop in SF recently. Interesting notes on multi-brand m-commerce, localization, and iterating.