Mobile help retail stores win sales

With big retailers such as Blockbusters and HMV going belly up and attributing this on people buying online instead, it is of no surprise that retail stores are concerned this Christmas, particularly as these sales can make up to 40% of retailers' overall annual revenue.

Good news? Retailers concerned about the negative effects of online shopping this holiday season can rest a little bit easier tonight as research by BuzzCity finds although 47% of shoppers around the globe expect to do their Christmas shopping online this year, this will not negatively affect the volume of customers shopping in retail outlets.

With multiple ways for customers to shop, retailers must focus on creating a consistent customer experience regardless of the channel chosen by customers to engage with retailers this holiday season. By doing so, this will help ensure retailers are competing across channels. If a customer's first point of contact with you is visiting your website via their smartphone, you need to ensure this is representative of your brand and creates an enjoyable shopping experience. Consider that one of your brand values is 'quality products and services' but your mobile website is ill-designed and difficult to navigate - is this truly demonstrating your 'quality' brand principle?

Mobile helping retail stores win sales

Make sure you have a mobile website to ensure you do not lose sales to others and integrate this with your store. For example, if a customer reserves items online, you can send a text message alert to notify them when the reserved product is available for collection at their nearest store.

Text messages can also be used for sending general alerts about accounts such as new statements, special events and promotions. This can prove very valuable when developing customer relationships as you can invite special customers to a fashion show for example, increasing the likelihood that they will become a repeat customer.

Retailers have a deeper understanding of their shoppers today including their buying habits and demographics helping them tailor mobile coupons and promotions to increase revenues. Using geo-location technology, you can even send specific deals to customers when they are nearby, making the likelihood that they will visit your store that little bit higher. If you are a restaurant for example, you can blast customers with a mobile alert or e-mail advising them of any deals making them not only aware you are nearby and putting yourself to the forefront of their mind, but also providing a direct reason for them to visit your restaurant over others. With UK shoppers becoming more cost conscious, this can provide the perfect excuse to spend money in your restaurant over others.

Retailers could consider equipping sales staff with tablets and custom apps so they can help customers in store and pull up information instantly on customers' past shopping behavior or to find information about merchandise. For example, they could find information about stock availability both within their store and other nearby stores enhancing the customer experience and helping secure the sale. QR codes can also potentially be used to allow customers to find detailed product information, add products to a 'wish list' and even suggest other associated products for example.

Mobile technology can be used to help retailers enhance customer service across channels and provide a more cohesive and consistent experience. Learn more about how retailers can enhance the mobile shopping experience or read our Retail section to find out more.

For further information regarding HSL Mobile, visit us at:

http://www.hslmobile.com

follow us on LinkedIn, @hslmobile, Facebook or Google+

or call us on +44 (0)1506 605 260

or email us at sales@hslmobile.com

The retail showrooming effect on stores this festive season

'Showrooming' is a well known term amongst retailers and is causing some genuine concern for brick and mortar retailers that revenues will be hit as a result of customers being able to access online sites from mobile devices. As traditional brick and mortar stores continue to compete with online sites this Christmas, they now have additional concerns as customers go online and compare prices whilst in their shop!

Research by Foolproof found showrooming affected retailers in the run up to Christmas in 2012. During the festive period last year, 24% of all UK shoppers engaged in showrooming with 40% buying products from a competitor after comparing prices via their mobile whilst in-store and 20% simply went into a store in the first place to review a product they later planned to buy online.

Retailers must not forget that showrooming not only heats up the competition with online retailers, but also with other traditional brick and mortar stores. Foolproof found that customers that went online via their smartphone to check prices whilst in-store, would also go on to buy from other retail stores. Customers can now find a volume of information online via their mobile about products and services, and store reviews making them a much more intelligent shopper and making it that little bit more complex to compete today.

What does 'showrooming' mean for retailers this festive season?

As discussed in another article How can retailers combat showrooming? there are many ways to ensure your retail store competes successfully with online websites and other retail stores, overcoming the threat of 'showrooming'. As much as price matching would appear to be the obvious answer, it is seldom a long-term solution as traditional retail stores are more likely to have higher overheads such as rent/mortgage, utility bills and staffing.

Retailers should focus on enhancing the in-store experience they offer and make sure customer service is a top priority as well as finding ways to engage customers and develop long-term relationships. Tablets can be used by sales assistants to allow them to quickly find product information and stock availability at the touch of a button, restaurants can reduce paper production and enhance brand image by using iPads instead of menus, staff can offer personalised service for customers who would like further help and advice. Loyalty cards and targeted promotions can be used to foster long term relationships and stimulate repeat business.

At the end of the day, people like to speak to other people and be able to see and test products and services before they buy making it doubtful that retail stores will become no more. It’s also important to note that not all purchases are reviewed and planned ahead – how often have we went out to ‘have a look around’ or visit a supermarket to buy 'just bread and milk’ and come home with an armload of shopping?  We mustn't forget those alluring impulse buys!

The retail store will remain an important part of the shopping experience and mobile technology such as sending a text message to a customer when they are nearby to the store with an enticing promotion will help improve sales and equipping staff with mobile devices will enhance customer service as they are able to find information more readily. 

Learn more about how retailers can enhance the mobile shopping experience or read our Retail section to find out more.

For further information regarding HSL Mobile, visit us at:

http://www.hslmobile.com

follow us on LinkedIn, @hslmobile, Facebook or Google+

or call us on +44 (0)1506 605 260

or email us at sales@hslmobile.com

Mobile Couponing to Drive Retail Footfall

According to an article in the Telegraph, mobile shopping is expected to continue to rise by a further 115% across this year and almost a third of UK shoppers are already expected to be using smartphones as part of their shopping process.

However, as mobile shopping shows great growth, many traditional retail stores are struggling to gain footfall traffic and achieve previous sales growth.

Traditional brick and mortar stores must examine strategies to encourage shoppers into their retail stores and generate sales. One way to help bridge the gap between digital and traditional brick and mortar stores is through mobile couponing. According to Streetfightmag.com "When it comes to getting more customers through the front doors of a business, it’s hard to beat the effectiveness of a simple coupon."

Coupons and offers have been shown to enhance engagement with customers and help retailers keep existing customers. I think we’ve all been in a position where we may get a coupon or discount offer from somewhere we’ve bought from before and decide to try them again as we see value in the coupon.

More shoppers are recognising the value in coupons with Juniper expecting the number of coupons redeemed through mobile and tablets to reach a whopping 10 billion this year - rising by more than 50% compared to the previous year. Mobile coupons have redemption rates of 10% which is excellent compared to the mere 1% redemption rate of print and PC coupons. However, at the moment the number of mobile coupons given to customers is still rather low but we should expect to see this number rise in the near future.

It is important that retailers examine how their own customers like to redeem coupons according to CMS Wire. RadiumOne examined four types of coupon redemptions and found 51.5% of customers prefer to show coupons to a cashier, 23.8% prefer scanning-based systems, and 42.3% prefer SMS-based coupons. It is therefore essential that retailers study their own customers and devise a coupon which suits their customers’ needs.

Streetfightmag.com urge retailers to also consider what happens after coupons are redeemed as return rates are always rather low. Many businesses are beginning to use ‘post-couponing’ to generate additional sales. This can include giving reward points or small token gifts such as a free sample allowing businesses to add additional value without having to endlessly mark down products and diminish the quality of their brand.

SMS messaging can also prove to be a simple yet highly effective tool for retaining customer engagement. Retailers can alert customers to special promotions, account information, or send updates on stock availability. These types of SMS alerts help encourage repeat business and strengthen customer relationships.

At HSL, we specialise in offering businesses high quality solutions to suit business requirements. From simple text message promotions to bespoke solutions, visit our Solution Planner and find out more about some of the different ways we can help you.

For further information regarding HSL, visit us at:

http://www.hslmobile.com

follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter @hslmobile or Google+

or call us on +44 (0)1506 605260

or email us at sales@hslmobile.com

How can retailers combat showrooming?

Showrooming is gaining popularity amongst consumers and causing grave concern amongst traditional retailers as it hits revenues. Wiki defines it as “examining merchandise in a traditional brick and mortar retail store without purchasing it, but then shopping online to find a lower price for the same item.” 

This trend originally began in the US, but is beginning to create waves in the UK. Intersperience found ‘showrooming’ is increasingly popular amongst UK customers with 1 in 3 using mobiles to compare prices, read product reviews or check products were available to buy (particularly relevant over the festive period). Roughly 20% phoned other retailers and compared prices while they were in a retail store with 30% purchasing the product right there and then!

So the big question. How can retailers combat showrooming?

The most obvious solution would be for retail stores to match prices with online retailers. According to research from Forbes, if retailers matched prices this could create the necessary motivation for customers to buy from the retail store over an online competitor.

However, retailers must also look beyond simply matching prices as they have to create a profit in order to sustain business activities and most would not be able to afford to continuously price match due to having larger overheads than online retailers.

Luckily, Forbes found that retailers can also compete with showrooming by using personalised offers, loyalty points, improving customer service and sending items directly to customer’s homes. Paul Hudson, Chief Executive of Intersperience concurs with these findings: “The onus is on retailers to make instore shopping more attractive, via loyalty bonuses, limited edition goods, price matching or better service.”

Retailers must consider what is important to their customers and the advantages that shopping and buying in store can bring – would they be motivated to buy from the retail store because you offer better after sales service or would they respond more positively if you offer additional loyalty points? These considerations are key to retailers winning business.

Combining mobile with customer relationship management (CRM) systems is an effective way for retailers to enhance service and customer relationships. For example, retailers can alert customers by SMS when out of stock products become available to buy and collect in store. With almost everyone having their mobile phones on them, they are then instantly alerted and can collect goods sooner rather than later. This can be a very crucial service for customers who require products urgently.

Mobile marketing is also an effective tool for enhancing customer relationships and generating further revenue. Retail stores can advise their ‘most valuable customers’ about sales promotions instantly by SMS before letting all customers know giving the ‘most valuable customers’ a better chance to purchase products they like as there will be higher availability.

Mobile couponing is also proving to be very popular amongst consumers, particularly when combined with geo-location. This allows retailers to target customers with special coupons directly to their mobile phone whenever they are nearby, helping drive foot traffic to their retail stores.

Retailers must be more proactive in their customer relationship management and focus on what their customers want and make the buying process as painless and enjoyable as possible. Focusing on targeting promotions so they are relevant, enhancing customer services and improving customer communications will be crucial considerations for all retail strategy and help overcome issues of showrooming.

A great example of a retailer adapting to how customers purchase products today can be found in Argos. They changed their retail model to fit in with their customers, focusing on making the buying process as convenient as possible. As a result, customers can now buy online and be alerted when they can collect items in store making the shopping experience more efficient and ensuring their business model remains relevant in the retail environment today.

Find out how HSL can help you stand out from the crowd by developing bespoke and innovative retail mobile solutions for you.

For further information regarding HSL, visit us at:

http://www.hslmobile.com

follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter @hslmobile or Google+

or call us on +44 (0)1506 605260

or email us at sales@hslmobile.com