INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Yet again, high street retailers are struggling and were on the wrong end of numerous negative headlines about how sales have dropped in
The main culprit given for the doom and gloom The rise of digital, specifically mobile
Today, at the start of 2018, the competition has superseded mobile vs desktop and reached a new level of competition: mobile apps vs mobile
There has been a fundamental shift.Ignore apps at your perilsGlobally, consumers now spend on average approximately three hours a day in
apps, and seven times more time in native apps than simple mobile browsers
Failure to recognise this paradigm shift hurts many retailers
those retailers that have focused on an app strategy have been the ones to thrive in recent times
For example, Asos has reason to celebrate the new year, sharing a 23 per cent year-on-year increase in what the company admitted was a
transactionsDeveloping an app strategy is not just a smart way to retain your piece of the retail market pie, it makes the pie bigger
The potential revenue to be gained in the app economy is a phenomenal size of the market.For example, in 2017 consumer spend in the app
overall spending still reportedly increased year on year according to a report by Visa
For example, here in the UK, 2017 saw an 80% increase in total sessions in retail apps.Last year also saw some 100 million hours being spent
strategy is not just a smart way to retain your piece of the retail market pie, it makes the pie bigger.Good bye to brick and mortarThe
physical retail store was once the place where individuals interacted with your brand, but since the boom of e-commerce, mobile has become
opportunity to improve your relationship with customers and, ultimately, your bottom line
digital and physical store experience.Use of in-store beacons, apps that provide product data and product locators drive customer engagement
Imagine your customer has not bought anything from you before but has been browsing hats
On the mobile web, tracking this can be tough, but acting on it even harder.With an app If one of those items subsequently goes on sale, the
retailer can send a notification (either OS-wide or within the app itself), helping turn a prospect into a customer
example, if a customer has items in their wish list or even sitting in their online shopping basket, and one or more of those items is on
sale in a nearby store, retailers have an opportunity to send push notifications through the app
begun.Competition has never been more fierce, those retailers that manage to use mobile apps to drive value both online and offline, the
potential to accelerate business is phenomenal
If app strategy is an afterthought in your sales strategy, then your brand will remain just that for UK shoppers.Paul Barnes, Territory
