How Enterprise Mobility Influences Retail?

Jabong, Flipkart, Amazon, Alibaba, eBay — as online stores continue to multiply in number and dominate the market. So, how traditional retailers will keep up to meet their consumer demands?

With the rise of smartphones and tablets, enterprise mobility has brought a new surge in the retail industry. Now customers can research, compare and purchase products and services on a larger scale with their mobile devices.

Whether reclining on a couch or browsing the shelf racks of a brick and mortar store, we love to use mobile. It has changed the way we buy things, how we feel about a particular brand and how we talk to each other about our retail experiences.

This dramatic growth marks, that retailers must be aware of the forces working in the current market. For example, some new technologies such as beacon are changing the way consumers interact with retail businesses. It is opening new interfaces for the shoppers to consume information on the fly and create a big opportunity for the marketers to engage more consumers.

Embracing mobile commerce and engaging with customers through their smartphones and tablets that help retail business to have a slice of the

- $119 billion marketplace

So, it is high time retailers need to learn and adopt disruptive technologies.

Meet the Mobile Shoppers

While coming across some astounding stats in Inreality notes, it was seen that 94 percent of all retail sales were made in brick-and-mortar stores in the U.S. in the year 2014. This means all physical stores are turning to mobile to engage more customers every day. And no doubt they are going to provide best experiences which online stores can’t.

The traditional way to sit in front of your desktop to shop an article is too old. Americans today rely more on smartphones and other mobility solutions. Sixty-five percent American adults own a smartphone and the percentage of use is even higher among the teens. And there is also a small percentage who do not have a broadband connection at home and hence relies on their mobile to purchase.

As per Think with Google, “84 percent of shoppers in physical stores use their smartphones to get information about products and comparison shop” And as per B2C reports, a Stanford survey shows that nearly half of the millennial age group have downloaded a mobile shopping app.

What These Shoppers Do?

Here are some cool findings on modern day shoppers -

• These shoppers check out deals from the retailers or their competitors.
• Consult with friends via text while shopping from a store (Flipkart in India have integrated an in-app chat service, that enabled chat and shop option to all its buyers.)
• Updates their social media accounts while waiting in the queue.

Retailers thus need to make shopping happen both in-store and out. Setting the priorities to invest in mobile apps and beacons for in-store use, in-app shopping, mobile payments in stores and mobile advertisements could be the toast.

Every Retailer Should Have an App

Typically, as per IBNLive’s findings a smartphone user uses five non-native apps at the most daily. So, how does a retailer can persuade a consumer to download its app? How their app can become one of those five regularly used, non-native apps?

A good mobile app is not all about having a convenient platform but it needs to provide a personalized experience that relates to both consumer’s interest and conveys details about items on the physical retail shelf. Around 40 percent of the users turn to competitors if they find a bad mobile experience with a retailer.

It’s No Longer Pull-Based, Its Push Based Now

Earlier the apps were pull-based, means user had to request an information, look for a product and put something in the shopping cart. But today things have changed, we are now introduced to push-based apps, that anticipates user needs and provide relevant information based on them.

So, if an app knows the preferences of a user, it will automatically notify on the price and availability of a product without having the user to ask for it. Content, products, and services will find you, rather than you having to find them.

In-Store Beacons for Mobile Ads

Small and relatively inexpensive Bluetooth devices placed throughout a store that provides an added dimension to the push concept. If the shopper enables beacon notification, these devices will allow transmission of product information, but sales notification as well. Beacons can also be used to display customized ads as per shopper’s preferences and interests. Another feature is their ability to process immediate payment without requiring to register.

All New Mobile Payments

Apple Pay or Samsung Pay are not yet mainstream, but they will soon have a huge fan base. Retailers need to upgrade their point-of-sale (POS) systems to fit in their new EMV-chips that has replaced their magnetic strips. This new system has the capability to accept credit card information, directly from a mobile app.

Mobility in retail has changed the shopping experience on the whole and have personalized it at a greater level and improved the bottom-line as well. So are you developing mobile apps for your retail business? Are you moving with the latest trends in retail mobility? Share your thoughts with me in the comments.

Meet the Author

Wordsmith I’m, and something which keeps me on is latest technologies, gadgets and tech gossips (You know biggies are always after each other). Presently I’m with Innofied, helping the team to achieve their content marketing goals using some of the best practices. You will enjoy my blog on Medium and I keep on writing on and off in popular websites. And if I am not in a mood for blogging, I give a try to poetry. Find my poems here.

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