Smart phones are now a large part of consumer‘s lifestyle and many are inseparable of their technology love. Yet many retailers are still not taking notice of the smartphone revolution and creating the best mobile friendly content possible.
Few customers are actually physically purchasing in stores, instead they are choosing to buy online. Brands therefore need to tap into new ways of connecting with their consumers.
Many brands are often creating apps and socially active on twitter, however companies seem to only be using them half heartedly, thereby not using these platforms to their full potential. Audiences want to interact with brands but retailers need to distinguish the difference between shopping and leisure. Some shoppers want to have instant shopping experiences that sites such as Amazon offer. Other times however, they want to take time interact with sales assistant and tweet about their purchases.
Smartphones are a great way to survey consumers, for instance; monitoring how many retweets a certain product received and how many people browse the webpage on a specific day. Retailers and brands need to establish a shop voice to showcase on social media which is something they may not have originally put much thought into. The social media presence is important as it creating the online personality for the brand. Location based services such as Uber London use social media really well at focusing on a specific area and audience.
House of Fraser and Caffe Nero working together to create online shopping and coffee hubs, shows great use of technology by these brands. They are engaging customers both directly and online. Combining sales staff alongside online shopping and changing rooms brings the best of the both worlds to their customers. Will this catch on with other retailers? Burberry was the first to use the ‘Buy‘ button on twitter during fashion week which proved to be popular and gain extra media attention.
Smartphone shopping means there is less need to worry about an item selling out and shopping on your lunch break even easier. Retailers need to make sure their sites and software are constantly kept updated in this ever changing smartphone generation.
