Reaching
consumers once they’ve walked into your shop.
If you’re expecting your mobile commerce strategy to simply be a version of your e-commerce efforts, only suited to a smaller screen, then you will be missing the majority of the opportunities that are available to you through this channel.
The smaller screen is just the jumping off point, since it makes sure that your content is accessible.
In the United States – which isn’t even the mobile commerce world leader – there is double digit growth being seen in this sphere. It has been predicted that by 2015, the marketplace will be worth almost $300 billion. So it is important for retailers and merchants of all kind to make sure that they are making proper use of this channel, and aren’t missing out on tremendous opportunities.
The key to m-commerce is the fact that it is (obviously) mobile. Instead of reaching consumers while they are sitting at home or at work, retailers can connect with them no matter where they are or when it is. This includes when consumers are actually within the physical store locations. Why is this important? Most retailers would think that once they’ve drawn the consumers into their stores, then their marketing has worked. Job done.
However, if you stop there, then you’ve stopped showing your customers why they should choose you over the competition.
Why does that matter when they’re already in your store? Because a consumer with a smartphone can wander into your shop, look over a product, and then use the mobile device to comparison shop with other merchants, you need to take actions to make your offers more attractive than what can be found online.
In-store mobile commerce has, therefore, become a vital part of an overall marketing strategy. What it means is that advertising and promoting over the mobile channel doesn’t necessarily need to be done with the online shopper in mind. Instead, it fuses brick and mortar retail with the virtual world, so that technology can help to make sure the shopper in the store actually makes a purchase.
There are a full range of techniques already being used for in store mobile marketing, ranging from location based offers that send discounts, coupons, and other promotions to consumers that have entered the shop, to the use of QR codes, simplified mobile payment transactions, self checkouts, and other features for savings and convenience.
yPal continues to look for ways to engage the ever growing mobile consumer population. The company has had a keen interest in mobile commerce for some time, and has been eager to offer services to consumers that are interested in making payments using their mobile devices. Initially, PayPal had plans to make use of NFC technology to provide these services to consumers. The technology proved to be less than ideal for the company. Now, PayPal is setting its sights on QR codes.