How Can Apps Boost Customer Engagement With Retailers?

Even a decade ago, technology didn’t have much to do in the business arena. Especially, when it came down to building effective customer relationships, businesses relied on physical markets to a great extent. The emergence of tech innovations and mobile revolution has entirely changed the present scenario.

Today, customers no longer rely on manual operations and perform most of their purchases on mobile devices. Interactive, easily navigable, and intuitive applications ensure unsurpassed shopping experiences for consumers. That’s not all; they bridge the gap between sellers and their target customers across the globe.

Needless to say, the retail market also reaps the benefits of consumer apps. If you wish to know how, here are some pointers that explain the scenario quite well.

How apps can boost customer engagement with retailers

Quick look at stats

Before we delve deep into discussing the nuances, let’s turn to stats for a complete lowdown. Social media, gaming, and communication apps are the widely used options. However, there’s a different dimension to this story. According to reliable stats, an average user installs nearly 36 applications on his mobile, out of which 1 in 4 applications remained unused.

That reveals consumer behavior to a great extent. Your target consumers will only use your apps if they meet their expectations. So, how do these consumer apps manage to boost customer-retailer relationships? Take a look!

Apps Determining purchases

Apps play a crucial role in the sales process. When it comes to buying things online, a majority of app users refer to the respective business applications for more information. Out of two users, one relies on apps for making purchase decisions. Nearly 29% of these users leverage apps to take actions. Quite naturally, apps have a lot to do with the entire sales and purchase process.

It’s here that businesses and retailers need to sit up and take note of the entire issue. Customers always wish for unmatched browsing and shopping experiences, and that’s what these applications help them achieve.

How do apps boost customer engagement?

Since a large number of consumers rely on apps, retail businesses are increasingly investing in app development. By integrating stunning features into their applications, retailers are taking a step towards improving UX. Breeze through the following points and check out what they intend to do:

  • Push notifications: Sending push notifications through apps will be an effective way to engage consumers. Your target customers will get to know about special discounts and offers.
  • Incorporating store layouts: App experience today involves the implementation of store layouts. Your customers will know the exact locations of the chosen products, which will surely enhance their shopping experience.
  • Multiple payment options: The flexibility and ease of payments will make the shopping experience quite enjoyable for users. Multiple payment options will add to their convenience.

Parting thoughts

These are some of the innovative ways retailers are using to transform shopping experiences for the better. We can conclude that apps are playing the pivotal role in ensuring optimum customer satisfaction, thus boosting customer engagement with retailers.

How Apps Benefit the Retail Sector

Retail apps

Retail apps

In the modern day and age, many sections of the industry have been remarkably transformed, thanks to the advent of smartphones. The world of retail has seen similar change over the last few years, owing to the power smartphones have provided modern day shoppers with. With price-comparing apps gradually paralyzing brick-and-mortar establishments, many companies in the retail sector are feeling the need to venture in the world of mobility.

The companies that have completed the transformation successfully currently find themselves in a strong, viable position in the market. This is down to the fact that there are numerous possibilities and benefits that mobile apps can bring to the retail sector. Currently, many companies are using the mobile platform to sell their products and services, communicate with customers, provide personalized services and manage relationships. The mobile platform is being leveraged to address a number of problems of the retail industry, and the benefits it brings to the table can no longer be ignored.

Here are some of the most convincing ways that retail companies are using custom developed mobile apps to succeed in the competitive market –

  • Immersive Shopping Experience – Every purchaser wants comprehensive information about the products they are about to purchase. As a retail company owner, you can ensure the delivery of that information with your own retail mobile app. You can list your products with a full set of features and specifications, include pictures and videos, and also integrate user reviews which give purchasers a fair and unbiased idea about the product they are about to purchase. Such wealth of information is what often tips the balance and closes the deal.
  • Personalized Services – Keeping customers interested and loyal has been one of the main problems of the retail industry, and the mobile platform provides a great solution- providing personalized services in the form of deals, discounts, reward points and loyalty programs. Providing incentives to customers who stay loyal is a great way to sustain their interest and build a fruitful relationship. Having your own mobile app makes it easy for you to plan and deploy loyalty programs, showcase new products and run product promotions, making things lucrative for your customers.
  • Marketing – The mobile platform has now been widely recognized as one of the most efficient marketing tools currently available. You can now showcase your entire range of products and services, and allow users to bookmark products they like, and share their preferences on social platforms. With the integration of social media, you can spread information about your brand and products to large masses with half the hassle and cost that is usually involved in marketing efforts through other channels.
  • CRM – Mobile apps can help you smoothly manage customer relationships. You can use your app to get feedback, address complaints and answer queries. Apps can be configured to send push notifications on the launch of new, important products. For regular shoppers, there can also be speedy channels of purchase integrated into your app. All this facilitates the building and nurturing of fruitful customer relationships.

See any other ways in which mobile apps have influenced the retail sector? Do write in to us and let us know.

5 Business Processing Apps to Empower your Retail Business

Retail Business Processing Apps

According to the latest statistics by Business Insider, 58% of the mobile retail revenue has been driving the top 500 brands in 2014. In-app purchases account for the rest of the business. Another study by Google indicates that 82% of smart phone users choose to browse retail websites on their phones rather than on their computers. Today, there is a mobile app for simply everything. For businesses, this has implications far deeper than gaining leads and enhancing revenue streams. Here’s a list of top 5 retail apps that every modern business should utilize to their benefit –

Vend POS

Vend POS has been integrated with the iPad and enable businesses to connect with clients and global customers at any given time. Used by businesses all over the globe, Vend POS can be integrated with receipt printers, barcode scanners and cash drawers. Making financial transactions, reporting, and building analytics for your business is made simple on this app. Even without an active internet connection, Vend POS allows a seamless business process. The software has been further integrated with programs like Shopify, Timely, Xero, and Stitchlabs.

PayPal Here

Another innovative app for iPad users, PayPal Here lets you to accept payments and do transactions just by connecting to mobile device and dedicated PayPal dongles. It is a highly trusted transaction platform for many businesses across the globe and further allows the business to send e-receipts over email and text messages. Since it requires customers to check in with their mobile devices, PayPal Here is also a beneficial tool to personalize interactions and guarantees a repeat purchase.

Collect

Collect has been developed to engage businesses in making repeated business out of first time sales. Used by many businesses globally, Collect integrates customer loyalty and reward programs to attract customers to do repeated purchases. Personalized marketing exchanges also enable the businesses to increase foot traffic sales and establish push notifications. Companies can use it as a tool to track every customer’s shopping history and send customized notifications.

RetailNext

RetailNext has long been used as an in-store solution, helping collect massive amount of customer data and actionable insights to engage and convert. The application taps into several data sources including Wi-Fi, POS Systems, and promotional calendars, staffing systems, weather and much more. The app also organizes and converts all such data into reports and graphs that are easy to understand.

Xero

Xero enables your business to stay updated on your financial front even when you are not connected to the internet. The app allows you to approve, create and generate invoices using your mobile device. The application will help you upload receipts and track expenses. The automation features integrated with this app lets you import and categorize transactions on the go, allowing the business to focus on the core business activities rather than spending time on daily balance sheets.

Modern day retailing is all about simplifying the way we buy and sell. Do write in to us and let us know which apps from the above list are a part of your digital marketing strategies.

5 Cool Mobile Loyalty Apps That Every Modern Business Must Have

Mobile Loyalty Apps RetailCustomer loyalty is a key to the success of every business. Several big brands consider loyalty as a critical part of their online engagement strategies and employ various tools, from social check-ins to digital payment systems, to gain better involvement from customers. Retention and customer loyalty programs are becoming important revenue drivers in these highly crowded marketplaces.

Brands who are take the lead to prioritize their customers are proving to be early winners. About 43% of mobile app users are more likely to make a purchase when loyalty deals are a part of the app marketing campaign. That’s the level of influence mobile apps have on the lives of people and that’s the channel a business must target. Today we look some apps that (both from retailers themselves or through generic loyalty scheme service provider) that show how business can engage better with customers for a win-win deal –

Shopkick

A location based app, Shopkick offers exciting offers and discounts to customers who simply choose to walk into stores guided by the app. Some of the most prominent clients of Shopkick include Macy’s, Best Buy and Target. Currently Shopkick has been adding independent small retailers in select markets like Detroit, Chicago, San Francisco, New York, New Orleans, Washington DC, Dallas Seattle and Austin. Customers using Shopkick also get discounts by scanning products through the app. Shopkick is powered by shopBeacon, which helps users flag businesses of their choice around them.

Belly

Belly has proved to be a profitable choice for several businesses. The app allows businesses to track customer footfall wherein the plastic loyalty cards can be scanned on mobile devices and the data can be stored on the cloud. Belly also helps integrate this data over social media platforms and emails, helping spread the word among potential customers. Belly also enables businesses to customize their loyalty programs according to customer behavior and target the same through email messages. When customers scan their loyalty cards/QR codes on their devices, the data gets updated to the merchant database and increases potential leads.

Pirq

Pirq was extensively used in regular business deals after being launched nationwide in the US in 2014. Unlike Belly, Pirq does not require using an in-store tablet. One of the most interesting features of Pirq is Facebook integration across different demographics and several varieties of deals. Pirq has been providing customers with some amazingly unique offers helping businesses do more with their customer loyalty programs.

Foursquare

Foursquare has been an extremely popular customer loyalty service for a decade now. Focusing mainly on social media, Foursquare adds your business listing to enable free analytics and tools. Businesses use these analytics to target demographics more specifically and work towards their business goals. Customers on the other hand use Foursquare for business searches and associated deals and offers. You can also set up special deals for highest purchases and frequent customers.

LoyalBlocks

LoyalBlocks is another exciting app that automatically offers rewards to customers who simply choose to walk into store guided by the app. Business can register online and use an Android powered device as their base server to analyze and customize the rewards for their customers. Once the app has been installed, the interface automatically recognizes the customers and sends tailored rewards every time they walk into the store (powered by a location based tracking).

Mobile loyalty programs are a great benefit to startups and stores that are losing their customers to online retailers. Having such programs is easy and guarantees elaborate returns in the form of leads and profits.

The Evolution of Retailer Mobile Apps in the 2014 Holiday Season

Retail holiday shopping appThe adoption of mobile devices is the single most rapidly growing and evolving adoption of any technology in the world currently. With huge number of people jumping on the smartphone technology bandwagon, marketers can find it a massive struggle to keep up. The huge potential is ideal to tap into, and businesses are flourishing after adopting the mobile platform. The mobile app industry was in its infancy as recently as five years ago. However, currently it comprises one of the largest markets in the world of technology, with billions of people spending almost 86% of their time using mobile devices on mobile app use.

The holiday season of 2014 can be viewed as a new landmark for retail companies, as they have really upped the ante when it comes to using the mobile app platform for their business. The highly competitive nature of the holiday shopping season saw plenty of effort on the part of retail companies to leverage the mobile platform and use it to their advantage. This has resulted in a massive evolution in the retailer mobile app segment.

Studying the Numbers

An independent study, collecting data from 150 retail mobile apps during the pre-holiday season in 2014, picked up some really interesting data. These trends and strategies have helped change the domain of retailer mobile apps and can be expected to be repeated over and over throughout 2015. Retailers increased their use of mobile communication during this period of time, and customers generally responded with extremely encouraging responses.

Here are some of the more compelling statistics –

  • Compared to the previous year, 34% more push messages and notifications were sent by retailers through their mobile apps in 2014.
  • Engagement rate for users increased to twice the amount for the previous year as a result of these push notifications.
  • Among the total instances of app opens, almost a third was a direct result of the push notifications.

The Importance of Push Messages

Push notifications proved to be the difference-maker in the holiday season of 2014. Consumers appeared to be more engaged as a direct result, and retention rates were found to be considerably higher. Compared to email marketing, push notification scored heavily on all aspects, being seen to increase open rates by 50%, increasing CTR (Click Through Rate) by ten times and even resulting in a whopping 1200% greater conversion.

Retail companies targeted heavy shopping days like Thanksgiving and Black Friday to step up their game with push notifications, and were suitably rewarded. The study also showed that there are defined parameters that can be adhered to for making push notifications a success. The day of choice and the time of day are important factors in this regard.

These are indeed great signs for the future of mobile engagement for the retail industry. Companies who respect the unique nature of the mobile platform and its eccentricities can keep leveraging its huge potential in the holiday season by targeted mobile marketing campaigns.

Provide Traction to Your Small Business Loyalty Program through Mobile Apps

Small business loyalty programs apps

Mobile apps have totally changed the way we interact. Small businesses out there have recognized the fact that potential consumers are easier to attract through well-designed and highly functional apps. Gone are the days when “buy ten and get one” offers were used to attract the loyalty of existing consumers. This is the era of faster apps and equally prompt in customer purchase decisions. Smartphones and business loyalty applications are loaded with administrating features and unlimited ways to create, explore and manage the consumer behavior. Emerging businesses can easily manage the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns or business loyalty initiatives by bringing these valuable apps to the scene.

The rationale behind loyalty programs

‘When we are closer to our long chased goals, we put in 100% of our efforts to reach there’, says Professor Oleg Urminskey who teaches marketing research at the University of Chicago Booth school of Business. For example – when you are closer to winning a prize from some random retail store, you frequently visit the same.

According to a recent market survey done by Manta and BIA / Kelsey, only 14 % companies admitted to spending their budgets on acquiring new customers. Nearly 61% said that they get their major business from the existing customer base and around 34% accepted that they have a well-developed customer loyalty program in place. This provides ample proof of the degree of traction loyalty programs has gained in the retail segment.

Some Known Names

Digital media is offering free trial issues of online magazines and newspapers that could be read through their exclusive apps. Some leading international newspapers offer cash coupons and also free mobile recharge on installing their app on your phone. Applications like – Belly, Foursquare, FrontFlip, KeyRing, Loyal Blocks, Perka, Slyde and SpotOn are being used by small businesses all over the world. These applications identify the loyal consumers, give points and also reward them depending on the campaign criteria. Through these applications, bulk messages and emails can be sent to the ‘listed’ loyal consumers.

How these help small businesses –

Small businesses can monitor their consumer’s buying behavior and encourage them to buy more. Messages in forms of discount emails, sale, and special offers can now directly arrive in their consumer’s ‘inbox’, from where they have the maximum exposure. Smartphones and apps are saving small businesses from putting in precious manual labor that was used extensively in designing, executing and managing small business loyalty programs earlier.

What you can expect as a consumer?

Being a consumer, you get reward points or earn coins when you buy specific product. Later on, these could be redeemed to buy a free product from the same company or retail store. In addition to this, reward programs treat special customers by giving them advance information about sale, new stock arrivals and lucky draws.

The traditional business loyalty programs involved more physical cards and they were given to consumers on random basis. Majority of these consumers kept these on their refrigerator only to find later that the reward program has expired. With applications especially meant for rewarding consumers at the right time, and influencing their purchase decisions, this scenario has definitely improved. Newer apps that will come to the scene in 2015 will be more targeted, user friendly, specific and meaningful, says a leading industry expert.

Ready to start building your next technology project?