Retail & Hospitality And Location-based Tools
Digby, a provider of location-based marketing tools for retailers and brands, released last week an analysis that shows an increase in mobile app adoption from 2012-2013.
The study shows that 70% of retailers in the Top 100 Retailers list and 47% of brands in the Hot 100 list now offer mobile apps. When looking at different categories of retailers:
– 78% of fast food and 75% of casual dining brands have built mobile apps
– 77% of big box retailers have a mobile app
– 59% of specialty and 58% of grocery stores have a mobile app
“By implementing location-based mobile marketing, retailers can pair powerful location detection with a contextual communication engine and best-of-breed notification capabilities to help make branded mobile applications more intelligent, relevant and engaging.” says David Sikora, CEO and founder, Digby.
Retailers can learn more about customers’ shopping behavior and drive foot traffic by capturing the attention of nearby customers. Digby is diving deeper into what are retailers using location technologies for:
– Three out of the top five retailers’ mobile apps ask for location services
– Four out of the top five retailers’ mobile apps ask permission for push notifications
– None of the top five retailers’ mobile apps offer targeted location messaging
Another study called “Mobile In-Store Research: How in-store shoppers are using mobile devices,” says the single largest task for devices in store, as reported by 82% of respondents, was finding information about products. using mobile search to find information about products. Other activities included comparing prices (53 %), finding offers and promotions (39%), finding locations of other stores (36%) and finding the hours of the store (35%).
It’s clear that interaction with a smartphone has replaced interaction with store personnel. The study found that one-third of respondents would rather consult their phone than ask a person for information in store. It is clear that we’re still living only the early days of location based retail mobile apps, and as retailers iterate, the innovation continues.
