Mobile apps nowadays have effectively change the retail industry, since everyone owned a smartphone, people can easily access to any apps at any time wherever they are. People do not have to go out to the shop to get what they need instead, they can sit at home and browse all the products, avoiding from annoying sales and awkward moment when spending too much time on choosing the right product.
In fact, mobile apps can narrow the distance between customers and retailers. Mobile apps are not only a platform for the customer to buy what they want online, it is also a platform for retailers to get feedback and complaints from the customers in order to keep improving.
This is the Chaffey’s six digital media channels approaches to become successful.
(Chaffey, 2011)
Companies are using promotion tool in order to increase sales and revenue such as the power of public relation, email and viral campaign. Public relation has been defined as the managed process of communication between one and another; it is a method of delivering message and communicate to the target audience as to influence to aspire to response (Chaffey et al. 2006). Email is also an important in marketing, it tend to improve brand image since it delivered message directly to customers (Tezinde et al. 2012). Viral campaign is to spread messages from one to another, this method is an informal, peer to peer electronic exchange of information about a product or service (Cruz & Fill, 2008).
There are several ways of using retail mobile apps to enhance customers shopping experience using online promotion tools.
- Retailers bring out additional information of the products
mobile apps provide additional information of the product, to let customers know more about the product such as key features, measurements, available size, color, as well as price comparison.
2. Saved search results
mobile apps saved your search results and provide related or matching products for customers, therefore customers can make the right choice when purchasing product.
3. Social media marketing
mobile apps provide way to share the production and its information to your friends through different channels such as Facebook, Instagram or email.
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More information:
https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-for-retail/
4. Viral Campaign
Customers might get reward or a discount when they referred a friend to visit or purchase from the app, which both consumer and their friends benefits from it.
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- Opt-in email
Retailers provide loyalty program for returning/existing customers. Customers register with their email, they would be receiving emails or text messages when there are sale, promotions/offer, or new launching products. This can boost up the sales of the retailer since when people notice that there are promotions, they tend to spend more because they think that they actually save money for that.
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- Easy payment
as everyone know that smartphone now provide fast payment, customers can easily pay by logging in or by fingerprints. customers can easily pay to purchase the product which decrease the time of deciding whether they should buy or not.
- Customer service team
mobile apps offer live chat platform for customers to solve their problem such as shipping, payment, sizing…etc. Customer might not need to wait for the response from email.
Useful additional resources:
Some examples of a good mobile business app
https://www.smartinsights.com/digital-marketing-strategy/10-examples-effective-mobile-business-apps/
Statistics of the use of mobile app
http://iminmarketer.com/why-mobile-app-for-retail-usage-is-on-the-rise/
Revolution of retail industry
https://www.accenture.com/gb-en/insight-internet-things-revolutionizing-retail-industry
References:
Chaffey, D. (2011). Digital marketing channels. [image] Available at: https://www.smartinsights.com/reach/attachment/digital-marketing-channels/ [Accessed 20 Nov. 2017].
Chaffey, D., Chadwick, F. E., Johnston, K. & Mayer, R. 2006. Internet Marketing: Strategy, Implementation and Practice. Essex: Pearson Education.
Cruz, D. & Fill, C. 2008. Evaluating viral marketing: isolating the key criteria. Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 26(7), pp. 743-758.
Tezinde, T., Smith, B. & Murphy, J. 2012. Getting permission: exploring factors affecting permission marketing. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 16(4), pp. 2-72.
Theseus.fi. (2013). Developing Online Promotion Mix For Mobile Application. [online] Available at: http://www.theseus.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/69821/Dieu+Hong+Tran_Thi.pdf;jsessionid=48F334F5D97C47B6C70452B60750A31F?sequence=2 [Accessed 20 Nov. 2017].