Find out how you can boost your retail sales through the use of smartphone apps and integrated online promotions.
By Moody Hashem
Picture this scenario: your store’s smartphone application sends out a notification about an article on the newest trends in natural health products, as well as information on your current specials. Over the next few days, a string of customers come in asking about the specials and commenting on your article. Some of them are just intrigued. Some of them even buy.
How did this happen? You have a mobile app that anyone can find on the iPhone App Store, Google Play, or via your company website. In less than a minute, customers and prospects can download your free branded app and begin receiving the information that you send out regularly.
Since consumers now spend more personal time on their mobile devices than on laptops or desktops, apps quickly gain a lot of traction. People who have strong interests — whether it’s concerning natural health products or Formula 1 racing — generally have a related app or two on their smartphones.
Is it worth it?
Every retailer has the same questions when it comes to creating an app:
- Will my app get any traffic?
- How easy is it to load my product catalogue?
- How do I create content for my app?
- What is my ongoing time commitment?
These are all excellent questions that need to be asked. Firstly, you will want to encourage website visitors to download your app. Your print materials should also point people towards it.
Secondly, remember that mobile is basically another online channel. Your app needs to be integrated with your website. If you have a product catalogue on your site or an online store, it’s vital to integrate it into your app and provide consumers with a personalized shopping experience on their smartphones.
Engaging consumers by sending out content on natural health news, updates, and trends is not difficult — especially if you engage the services of a mobile marketing company that curates content from an authoritative industry news source. Fresh content in the form of articles can be repurposed and branded specifically for your retail operation, with next to no effort from you.
Finally, make an effort to engage with social media channels like Twitter, Instagram and Facebook to more effectively communicate your message. Again, if you are working with a mobile marketing company that knows your industry, your direct involvement need not be significant.
Draw them in
Mobile is more than another way to reach people. It’s a way to locate them geographically, to show them where you are, and to draw them into your retail locations.
A well-built mobile app creates a personalized, engaging shopping experience that will help strengthen your brand and ultimately help you sell. When your app is optimized to take advantage of mobile capabilities such as GPS locating and push notifications, you can tailor your messaging based on geography. Your app can detect proximity, opening up more sophisticated marketing possibilities.
With today’s small mobile screens, you can only show so much at one time. One way to optimize the shopping experience for mobile is to curate information displayed based on geo-proximity.
If someone using your app is more than five kilometres from any of your retail locations, you will want to feature a map showing your closest stores, your contact details, and promotions. If an app user is within a kilometre of a retail location, you might want to feature any specials that you have on right now, or even push out a special offer tailored specifically for prospects with strong walk-in potential.
In-store, you can use mobile technologies to enrich the customer experience. Patrons could scan product tags, for instance, to get more information on a product. The result? Customers that can self-educate right in the store.
Choose wisely
You can easily find people to build you a custom app for a few hundred dollars. What’s more difficult to find is a company that understands the value of customer interactions within the natural health product industry and can help you create an online marketing program that doesn’t take up all of your time.
When choosing a mobile integration partner, look for a company that can plan, execute and integrate across mobile, social and web. They should have strong technical expertise on the latest mobile technologies such as push notifications, real time messaging and location-based technologies. They should also have previous experience in developing user experiences specifically for mobile apps. Last but not least, make sure that you team up with people that you enjoy working with!
