The Migration to Mobile III--All Shopping Can Be Local

It used to be a sign that you were cool with current technology; you did research on your computer before heading to retail stores to shop. That’s no longer true. Now shoppers can use their smartphones or tablets to get the information they are looking for right at the POP--and maybe a coupon to boot! That is a powerful concept and it is driving profound changes that go all the way down to the individual retail location.

It doesn’t start when the shopper nears the store or walks in the door, though. It starts by building a meaningful SoLoMo strategy. One interpretation of the mobile shopping funnel captures the essence.

http://www.brafton.com/news/smx-advanced-buzz-social-local-mobile-marketing-leads-to-sales-800526890

Social marketing helps build—or maybe for the small local retailer builds all by itself— awareness and a positive brand image. Retailers use tactics ranging from paid advertising to instore promotions and events to lure followers to their social platforms. Mobile marketing—whether paid ads or content marketing—reaches people when they are actively researching a purchase or provides a triggering cue by suggesting a reason to purchase. Local marketing reaches them at the point of purchase, giving them compelling reasons to buy at that moment.

http://techcrunch.com/2013/01/25/mobile-shopping-apps/

Adding another dimension to that argument is data about the role of various types of shopping apps during the 2012 holiday season. The huge growth is seen in retailer apps and the lowest growth in the daily deals apps, whose difficulties have been much in the news. I wrote about the Macy’s shopping app during the holidays. The mapping application still seems to be available only for the Herald Square store but deals, wish lists and other retail services are going strong. At the moment they are offering me a 20% off promo code, which might be useful, and a bridal registry, which definitely is not! My initial reaction was “so much for personalization,” but how do they find out unless they ask?

The data also highlights another important mobile issue. Price comparison apps also experienced explosive growth. Showrooming—checking prices in stores then buying more cheaply online—seems to be ongoing.

But there’s good reason for local retailers not to hit the panic button. The trend can be their friend! No less a retailer than Walmart is encouraging people to use their phones in stores. Wired explains it well:

Walmart’s stores are “geo-fenced,” which means the location-aware app enters “store mode” when you walk through the door. Once in store mode, you have access to an interactive version of the weekly on-sale circular for that store. You can see what’s new in the store. You can scan bar codes with the phone’s camera for prices and keep a running list of everything you’re buying so you’ll know the total cost when you get to the register.

How can retailers without Walmart-level resources turn showrooming to their advantage? The advice from the Retail Customer Experience site is:

1. Embrace omnichannel.
2. Bring the best of online shopping into the store.
3. Implement innovative in-store technologies.
4. Empower in-store personnel.
 
Putting it all together they say:

Innovative in-store technologies can help shoppers engage with brands and create a great, enjoyable shopping experience that leads them to both return to the store and to act as brand ambassadors through social media, leading to more visits from their peers.

Very interesting—it all comes full circle. Use both the human touch of your store employees and the power of technology to give your customers a great shopping experience and they will share it with their friends on social media. Like all good advice, it’s easier said than done, but the guidelines are there!

Migration to Mobile I - How is Consumer Behavior Changing?

The long-awaited mobile revolution has finally materialized in the United States. It took us longer than other parts of the world, but now that it’s here it is indeed revolutionizing the way consumers do many things.

The graphic and lengthy quote from the NPD Group shows the continuing flow of activity from desktops to tablets and smartphones. According to their press release 37% of consumers who once accessed content from their desktops now access from tablets and smartphones. Does that imply “all the time” or “some of the time?”  That’s not clear. The graphic shows Internet browsing and Facebook to be the two activities benefitting most from the switch. “Twenty-seven percent of smartphone owners have decreased both their Internet and Facebook usage on their PCs because they now use their smartphone for these activities,” they say, so the answer appears to be “some of the time.”

What surprises me most is in the text; smartphones lead tablets in the percentage of consumers who are switching to mobile access. Thinking about that, I believe the answer is not in larger screens per se; it’s in the fact that more people own smartphones than tablets at this point. For Pew research on the subject see:

• Changing activities of cell phone users 
• Current activities of smartphone users   Note that Pew identifies 2012 as the tipping point where more consumers are using smartphones than traditional cell phones.

So the switch is underway. What are they doing; what content are they accessing? The Marketing Sherpa chart shows more brand interaction, peer input, and product and pricing research. New purchasing behavior and payment methods are down the list, but I’d expect them to increase as consumers become more comfortable with mobile. Will showrooming continue to be a curse to retailers? Not clear. Local also seems to be on the upswing, and I’ll return to that in a later post.

Consumer behavior is being changed by the availability of mobile and improved mobile experience. What can we expect as 2013 moves on? In its 2013 predictions Mobile Marketer calls it SoLoMoCoDa, with Co mmerce increasing (along with Da ta) fueled by NFC and other developments in payment platforms.

They’re not so much doing different things; they're doing things like search and Facebook on different screens. More about that in the next post.

SoLo--The Importance of Google+ Local

http://bit.ly/Rv2F2z

SoLoMo has become a familiar acronym to all marketers. This post isn’t to discount the importance of mobile. It is to point out that in order for mobile to work for the local retail business those businesses have to get their local strategy in order. Google, Google+ and local search are key to that local strategy. Hence, SoLo.

After the holiday shopping season just past there should be no doubt about the importance of local search, much of which was mobile. This chart breaks down local search and it shows the importance to local retailers and restaurateurs and to others as well. I am surprised every time I get a heavy, expensive set of paper yellow pages. They are outdated before they get to my door! Who does anything except search???

I’ve been writing about Google’s evolving efforts in local for several years now, and it has evolved again. Obviously Google is not the only player in this field but no one else integrates various platforms/tools as well, especially since the purchase of Zagat. If you have any doubts about the power of the union, when I looked up Zagat I found a feed from their G+ page on the SERP page. An interesting way to get followers!

Google morphed Google Places into Google+ Local in May 2012. At that time PR Web identified the changes as the integration of Zagat reviews into the business page, integration across other relevant Google properties, and a circles filter to feed reviews from friends/family/colleagues circles. Last week Google announced the ability for business pages to interact with anyone on G+ whether members of their circles or not. It’s clearly pushing G+ pages by increasing their usefulness.

The integration is an interesting issue. The NYTimes had a useful article on the new SERP pages. It took me awhile to figure it out.  I searched for “snowblowers Cape Cod” but I didn’t see maps. What I discovered is that you have to hover over the paid listing and then click on the little arrows you see on the page capture. Ok, it works, but it takes some effort.  When I clicked on the link above the map, I got the company’s web site. When I switch to Maps view, I get a map and the ability to write a review. There don’t seem to be any reviews at present, nor does the firm appear to have claimed its business page and provided the information it wants customers to see. I can’t find a G+ page for it.

Here’s the  process for integrating a G+ brand page with the Google local listing. In case you wonder, a business doesn’t have to ask for a local listing. Google uses various databases of its own and commercial ones like yellow pages to create the listings. That’s the reason they may be inaccurate and that it’s essential for businesses to claim their listing and provide accurate information.  Here’s a post with detailed instructions and example that will be useful if you need to need to claim and verify your page, starting from your Google+ brand page. Of course, the business does have to set up its own brand page to create this integration.

I find the semantics confusing. There’s the G+ brand page and the G+ local business listing.  Here’s Google’s own explanation of how the new local listings are going to work: no mention of Google+ brand pages. However, it appears to me that Google+ is an important brand in the Google portfolio. I expect to see more integration in the future. That makes it important for local businesses to keep up with developments, starting by verifying the business listings or reviewing ones they haven’t checked on for awhile. Business owners need to be sure that their listings are correct and up to date and that they are taking advantage of all the social options that bring their customers into the process.