We approach digital solutions for clients with a “mobile first” mentality. With ecommerce (and mcommerce), you need an online shopping experience that doesn’t sacrifice the brick and mortar retailer, while providing the convenience of online browsing and buying.
Shopify recently wrote about Webroomers vs. Showroomers; people who browse online before making final in-store purchases, and vice versa. Mobile is the conduit between online and in-store purchases; by using mobile coupons and incentives, mobile loyalty rewards programs, and in-store mobile marketing, you’re personalizing the shopping experience to fit your customers’ needs. Tactics like these also get online shoppers off their butts and into stores, so there are no worries about straining relationships with distributors who depend on foot traffic to their retail locations.
Now, what about the strict online shopper who rarely sets foot in an actual store? Remaining relevant, knowing your audience, appreciating your customers; while these principles date back to the Acropolis, strategies are changing, and you must change with them to provide quality customer service to, say, those online shoppers who browse your products while watching “Game of Thrones.”
REI does a good job of this through their “Let’s Camp” campaign, with a quick quiz on what kind of camper you are. When the results are in, you’re presented with a series of products “essential” to your camper personality. It’s a personalized, interactive and mobile-friendly experience users remember.
You can’t afford to ignore mobile. Whether it’s back-to-school shopping, Black Friday’s digital cousin, Cyber Monday, or much needed retail therapy -- people will always browse and buy online. Make the experience easy for them and they’ll keep coming back.