When was the last time you asked someone for a bit of change and more importantly when was the last time you were successful in gaining some? What do you need it for anyway? Bus fare? Restaurant tips? Chipping in for colleague’s birthdays and leaving gifts? Not having change in your back pocket is a defining dilemma of the 21st century.
As shoppers increasingly move to contactless payments, retailers must ensure their mobile offers are appealing to their most devoted customers.
We know that online shopping is a force to be reckoned with. In the UK £114 billion was spent online in 2015 with Black Friday and Christmas shopping contributing £24.4 billion to this figure. The same can be said for Ireland too whose consumers are now spending €850,000 an hour online.
Undeniably, 2015 truly was the year the shopper went mobile. Mobile took over the retail world and especially in the UK where the average shopper would spend £981 through mobile transactions. That’s more than the US and other countries in Europe.
So how can you reach these elusive customers when they’re not in your store?… The Text Message.
The Offer
There are many ways to obtain a good, solid customer database but we always find that curating your own will provide you with the best response rate. A little subscription button or text in to subscribe notification on your website, in store or on flyers is a guaranteed way of encouraging customers who are already interested in your products to sign up to your SMS marketing campaign but a little incentive can always give an extra boost.
Example – Love a good deal? Text DEAL10 to 88802 to receive the best offers and get 10% instantly off your next purchase!
The Event
We’ve seen the headlines of dwindling high street stores and the demise of in-store purchases but mobile has its place to play in getting your customers from wherever they may be to your store. In-store events can be a perfect for finding out what your local customers are interested in and respond well to, but how did they hear about it? Mobile is a great way of letting people know what is happening near them. With a few well-timed texts and a healthy amount of office chatter, you can find yourself with a very successful event.
The Update
SMS is incredibly versatile, especially for the retail industry. This short and sweet marketing tool can also become part and package of a total retail experience with a small bit of technical expertise. An API integration can provide your customers with confirmations about purchases, delivery times, back in stock information sent straight to their mobile phones. Let’s face it, we all get excited by the text that tells us our package has arrived.
Mobile is certainly where it’s at and there’s more than one way to make this platform your own but it unquestionably can’t be ignored, especially since the IMRG predicts a further 11% growth in online transactions. As more shoppers take a multi-channel approach to shopping, mobile plays a key role in purchases online and offline whether it’s researching, SMS offers or buying online.
Digital & Social Articles on Business 2 Community(18)
