Innoppl – Blog

Mobile Apps Are The New Growth Booster For The Retail Industry

What do mobile apps have to do with retail sector? Aren’t they supposed to be oxymoronic?

Yes 10 years ago people thought apps cannot be beneficial to the retail industry in particular due to the expenses involved in building an app. It was also said to be irrelevant to retail since the business module is not online.

But, look at it today-

A retail store cannot prohibit customers from entering the store with a smart phone. It is more like healing a bone fracture with a band aid. Most of the customers do not just walk into a store and make a purchase these days. They require more information regarding a product that they look for, like the ones you see on an eCommerce website.

A recent report says 4 out of 5 smartphone owners prefer to learn more about the product by browsing their mobile devices, while they are still in the showroom.

How Important Is It To Accommodate This Majority 4 Out Of 5 Customers Who Walk Into Your Retail Store?

There is a rapid change in the adoption of mobile technology by individual users. Retail mobile apps and responsive websites make it easy for customers to access information about your store.

It’s time for retail owners to think about engaging more customers by enabling mobile technology within the store. Your customers are more likely to buy a product from a store when they find

• Interesting information about the product that can easily be accessed through their smart phones
• Product availability status
• Smart-phone enabled payment options like Paypal or Apple Pay
• Estimated delivery date if the product is not available for pick-up

This recent report also states that 57% of smart phone users visit the website or app while shopping in-store. This furthermore pushes the need for a retail mobile app as you might be losing customers to your competition even before they step foot into the store.

A quick tip: A user friendly website or a smart app can psychologically influence people in making them believe in your business. This greatly helps their buying decision.

Who Says “No” To Mobile Coupons?

We live in a fast paced and a connected world, where every product is likely to be available everywhere.So, how do you give reasons for a customer has to walk in to your Retail Store?

Traditional methods of advertisements through media like Television or Sign boards are very expensive. An easier way to reach a wider range of audience is to promote in store discounts or unique selling points through a website or mobile app. The discounts can be floated in the form of mobile coupons which could be redeemed during a check-out counter.

“33% of shoppers search for an online coupon on their mobile phones before making a visit to a store. “

The Biggest Advantage Of Making Your Retail Business Mobile Friendly Is Streamlining The Checkout Process

Mobile technology has been a growth booster for the retail industry and it has helped retailers to get into a more amicable relationship with their customers. Previously, people called the retail industry a failure when eCommerce came up. The reason that made people think like that was due to the “convenience” that online shopping offers over a physical visit to a store.

A physical visit to a store and waiting in long queues to make a payment is tiresome. The retailers lost a lot of money due to long queues which makes customers abandon their purchases. The retail Apple stores in the US is the perfect example where customers choose to do post purchase pickup after buying the product through their online website.

The mobile technology has reached an advanced level of “Scan & Go” payment apps and mobile credit card readers within the store to disperse the queues. One more advantage of mobile payments is that it will directly record the information of the customers and will add it to the marketing list to push sales notifications to them.

Get Personal With Geolocative Technology?

Geolocative Technology can track the location of a customer within the proximity of the store and figure out what they would be looking for. This data can be used to send push notifications to the customer with custom discounts coupons.

There are a few retailers are have successfully implemented the geolocative technology. This enables them to have set up a virtual fence around the retail store to identify a customer, who had already made a purchase in store, when they are in the locality. This way, the retailers can reach out to customers with relevant marketing messages.

So, what are you waiting for? If you are retailer, implementing advanced mobile retail technology helps improve your business ROI. So, if you are serious about taking building your retail business, Let us discuss over some coffee, maybe?