By Giovanni DeMeo, Vice President of Global Marketing and Analytics
At any time there are nearly 500 online conversations every minute about mobile lifestyle—that is more than 256 million conversations in one year. That statistic from Verizon Wireless is indicative that people are looking for more than just an app that provides discounts. The effort for retailers and brands to provide just the right app is evolving beyond e-coupons to a more intuitive and ingrained part of shoppers’ lives. A mobile lifestyle is all encompassing. It is a culmination of information from smartphone activity, online searches, Bluetooth technology, Wi-Fi, near field communication (NFC), shopper data, browsing history and much more in order to make lives easier and provide a value that did not exist before.
Within 12 months there will be a huge spike in new technologies that will engage shoppers through mobile devices. These include the technologies explored in recent Retail News Insider feature articles, such as crowdsourced personal shopping, in-store mapping, mobile wallets and digital checkout, as well as up-and-coming technologies like location-based marketing based on real-time in-store tracking and deals captured via NFC and instantly spread through shoppers’ social networks. As mobile technologies continue to evolve, there will come a point in the future where shoppers are in control of the retail environment and retailers will simply participate in that environment.
Retailers who take steps today to create their own mobile solutions that take technology beyond simple offers and discounts to become an essential part of shoppers lives will readily set themselves up to be invited into shoppers’ environment in the future. When it comes down to it, embracing this wave of the retail revolution gives retailers a chance to leverage not only the mobile boom, but the future of shopping—and life as a whole.