Tag Archives: iPhone

Multichannel retail strategy survey: the high street is central

The stats come from Shoppercentric’s ‘Shopping in a Multichannel World’ survey, and the results show that customers are using a wide variety of channels.

Mary Portas may have managed to produce a retail review containing just three references to digital, but online and mobile is vital for the future of the high street.

Channels used by customers during the purchase process

As the stats show, shops feature strongly in the channels used by survey respondents, followed by laptop and PC:

Multichannel Strategy Survey

The high street store still remains the most used channel, though for younger age groups, laptops and netbooks come pretty close.

In general, younger shoppers are more likely to use smartphones (and, to a lesser extent, tablets) as part of the purchase process.

Penetration of new technologies

Smartphones have now reached 45% penetration, but for the under 34 age groups, this rises to 62%.

Penetration of new technologies

Use of tablets and smartphones

As we’ve covered before, iPads can deliver impressive conversion rates and average order values (AOVs) but they are used by just 7% of shoppers.

Use of Tablet and Smartphones

At the moment, since the relatively expensive iPad is the dominant tablet, it may be that the wealth of the average owner means higher spend. However, tablet use is set to grow, so retailers should look at adapting their websites and marketing for this device.

The importance of the high street

The high street will always have a place. In fact, 45% of shoppers said they will ‘always love going to the shops, no matter what new technologies are available’.

These, and other multichannel retail stats, show that customers are rapidly adopting new channels such as mobile, and also that they will choose the one that suits their needs most at the time.

Offline retailers that are able to adapt to customers’ use of multiple channels will be best placed to prosper. This means things like launching mobile optimised sites, putting wi-fi in stores (to allow customers to view reviews, compare prices etc), having easy reserve and collect services, and in-store kiosks.

According to Danielle Pinnington, Managing Director at Shoppercentric: “Marketers should be excited about the prospect of being able to make an impact on the purchasing journey in many more ways than before. The opportunity to change shopper behaviour is better than it has ever been. The retailer or brand that is able to use all the channels at its disposal to meet shoppers’ needs is the business that will reap the rewards”

Retailers shouldn’t necessarily assign fixed roles for channels. Customers may well research online before heading to a store to make a purchase, but the reverse is equally likely.

The trick is to understand that customers will use channels for a variety of purposes, and to deliver a smooth and seamless experience whichever one the customer chooses.

via The high street is central to multichannel retail strategy: stats | Econsultancy.

Is self service the future of retail shopping? | VIDEO

Qthru is one of the many iPhone apps available enabling customers to scan barcodes and QR codes. What is interesting is that it also offers an opportunity to check out and pay thanks to the interaction with a check-out self service station at the local store.

A comparative analysis about Multichannel Retail in US and UK

Last month Econsultancy surveyed 2,000 consumers in the UK and 2,000 consumers in the US, to unearth attitudes to multichannel shopping and service.

The majority of consumers would find it useful to have a choice of retail channels, and a significant 33.5% felt this was very important. The results were very similar for both US and UK respondents, so the charts show aggregated data.

How important is it to be able to purchase from a retailer using different channels?

Quite a difference between US and UK consumers, with the latter far more likely to reserve items for in-store collection. Many of the biggest multichannel retailers in the UK are offering this service, (Argos, John Lewis, Halfords etc) with some success. For example, Argos’ multichannel sales grew to £1.9bn in the year up to February 26 2011, representing almost half (46%) of its total sales. The reserve and collect iPhone app accounted for 1% of total sales.

Do you reserve products online before collecting them from an offline store?

The use of mobile when shopping offline represents a growing challenge for retailers, as these stats show.

Use of Mobile Websites

US consumers are slightly more likely to use barcode scanners and compare prices via mobile, but a significant minority of US and UK respondents are using mobile as an offline shopping aid. Multichannel returns The vast majority of both US and UK respondents expect to be able to return items bought online to a local store.

However, as Snow Valley’s recent Online Returns Report found, just half of the multichannel retailers studied allow customers to do this. 

If you buy something online, do you expect to be able to return it to a local store?

Use of catalogues Percentage of customers that have used catalogues at least once in the past year before buying online or in store – aggregated US and UK results. (Source: Econsultancy)

Where Fast Food mobile Apps fail, ECOFFEE mobile experience is set to win

A couple of days ago Appolicious published an interesting article about the increasing number of mobile Apps for fast food restaurants and their being mostly not useful. Many are the apps listed, from Taco Bell to McDonald’s.

All these chains offers accurate information on the internet but extremely bare bones restaurant locator apps. In McDonalds’ defense, at least their app offers information on getting a career with McD’s, along with some nutritional information.  Burger King’s lack of an app caught everybody by surprise because they have been so good with marketing their products through games via the Xbox 360 for years that you expected something that appealing on the apps side too.

Useful functionalities and entertainment are a must for nowadays apps, especially in a field – the one of Ho.Re.Ca – where interaction and service have always been a key factor to achieve a high customer satisfaction. Add that customers now are spoiled with information: they love to get informed about the brand and the goods they are going to purchase, about the environment where they are sitting, about the other customers comments and opinions about the “experience” they are going to go through.

We discussed this subject with our partners, a team of skilled UX designers, in order to create a useful, entertaining and carefully designed iPhone/iPad app for DESITA’s Retail and Ho.Re.Ca customers, delivering not only a great user experience but also the  sustainability and responsibility messages which are ECOFFEE’s own. Brainstorming led to the first draft of what is set to become the ECOFFEE mobile experience, the perfect blend among social marketing, in-store advertising and a great user experience to create a stronger bond among the brand, the consumer and the brand’ sustainability and responsibility strategies. Please inquire us directly for further information silvia@ecoffee.it

Starbucks getting creative about contactless payment

The introduction of contactless payment options at Starbucks dates back on January 2011, when the coffee-shop chain launched mobile payment in all U.S. company-operated stores, allowing customers to pay for in-store purchases with select smartphones.

Building on the earlier introduction of Starbucks Card Mobile App for select BlackBerry® smartphones, iPhone® and iPod® touch and a successful mobile payment test program, USA customers now have access to the largest mobile payment program in the U.S. and the fastest way to pay at Starbucks.

Starbucks Card Mobile App on iPhone (Photo: Business Wire)

Customers can pay with their smartphone by holding their mobile device in front of a scanner on the countertop and scan the Starbucks Card Mobile App’s on-screen barcode to make a purchase. Customers have successfully adopted this technology in test markets in Seattle, Northern California, New York and more than 1,000 Starbucks in U.S. Target stores.

Mobile payment is built on the Starbucks Card platform, which continues to experience significant customer adoption. Customers loaded more than $1.5 billion on Starbucks Cards in 2010, an increase of 21 percent over 2009, driven in part by the My Starbucks Rewards program which provides benefits to customers who pay with a registered Starbucks Card at participating stores. With the introduction of the quick and easy Starbucks Card Mobile App and the mobile payment feature, customer will find yet another reason to use their Starbucks Card for payment.

“Mobile payment is just one example of how we’re continually innovating on behalf of our customers to enhance the Starbucks Experience,” said Brewer. “A growing segment of our customers use smartphones, and through the Starbucks Card Mobile App, we’re providing them with the fastest way to pay.”

Just a couple of days ago, the coffee-shop chain has signed a deal with Barclaycard, in partnership with Visa Europe, allowing consumers to pay for products by scanning their contactless credit or debit card over a payment terminal.

‘[This] follows our successful adoption of other technologies including Facebook Deals and geo-fencing mobile couponing,’ said Brian Waring, vice-president, marketing and category, for Starbucks UK and Ireland.

Whether they are using the same Starbucks Platform in the UK or not is not clear, especially because there is a big difference between the media that is going to be used for paying – QR code on mobile phones in USA, debit/credit card in UK. Let’s wait until 2012 to see what will happen in UK (Source: Starbucks.com)

How to deliver customized in-store offers to shoppers?

One of the in-store marketing biggest issues ever is how to reach customers with customized offers while they are shopping. U.S.A retailers and consumers are going to have a solution handy in the next future: Shop O’Lot.  

Shop O’ Lot is a self service platform which makes major retailer participation very easy. The model is based on a predictive analysis engine, that builds a customer’s shopping profile, then allows retailers to reach these customers in real-time while they are shopping, offering them customized discount coupons.

The app uses GPS and bar-code scanning for delivering the content and will be released on the iPhone and Android OS platforms.

Bob Pack, CEO says, “major retailers are now competing with product search and comparison apps that can actually drive a customer to buy from a competitor, a practice known as “scan and scram.” We have a complete solution to really help drive retail purchases, this goes well beyond mere Geo- location and focuses on individual target marketing. Once we understand the shoppers tastes, delivering them customized product deals only by the store they are in, will help keep shoppers loyal.”

Shop O’ Lot is still in the testing phase and plans a 2011 launch and retailers and consumers, can sign up now to be part of our beta program directly on Shop O’Lot website. (Source: americanbankingnews.com)