Mobile Marketing Daily and Mobile Commerce Daily, two publications dedicated to the insights and inside-industry commentary of all things mobile recently featured two great articles by Kobie’s President, Michael Hemsey.
Both explore how ever-evolving technology for smartphones and tablets, which are being adopted at rates faster than those of every previous technology, is changing how brands build relationships and facilitate reward programs both online and in the brick-and-mortar environment.
Loyal to a Second Pass: How Apple’s Passbook Could Remake Holiday Cheer looks at how Apple’s new Passbook app – which helps users store and manage their virtual coupons, loyalty points, tickets and gift cards – can help brands boost revenues and engagement during the holiday retail blitz.
Already some of the world’s biggest brands, including Starbucks, American Airlines, Target and Lufthansa are connecting with customers through Passbook and many more have signed up. The app functions as the central hub of a user’s mobile financial transactions and can provide loyalty marketers with a wealth of data that can be used to craft relevant and timely offers, adding real value for consumers and increasing brand loyalty through enhanced customer reward programs.
In-Store and Mobile: How Union of Old and New Habits is Holiday Loyalty Season Gift focuses on how retail brands’ careful merging of the old brick-and-mortar and new mobile commerce environments is likely to yield excellent returns as the 2012 holiday shopping season enters the home stretch.
Increasingly, retailers are creating tools – such as mobile wallets, Macy’s Parade/Black Friday app, Google’s Shortlists and Apple’s Passbook – that use mobile to draw consumers into physical stores by enhancing the shopping experience with real-time offers, access to detailed product information and even in-store directions to the hottest deals.
This blurring of boundaries between brick-and-mortar and mobile shopping that melds the best of both worlds isn’t likely to ease any time soon. In fact, online media mogul Google brought the phenomenon into the limelight this October by christening a new term: “nonline.” Naysayers call it just another buzzword. At Kobie, however, we feel differently. Google wouldn’t have coined the term if it didn’t feel the phenomenon was valid to begin with. Regardless of what it goes by, the power of mobile shopping tools and the connectivity and engagement desires of customers is also likely to surge in the year ahead.
For retailers, mobile is a key component to creating an omnichannel experience. How do you feel about mobile and its impact on customer retention and loyalty programs? You can read and comment on both of Michael’s articles here:
Loyal To A Second Pass: How Apple’s Passbook Could Remake Holiday Cheer
In-store and Mobile: How Union of Old and New Habits is Holiday Loyalty Season Gift
