Could “mobile-first” messaging strategies be a smart move for retailers in the upcoming holiday shopping season?
Perhaps so.
Mobile messaging — built around content, frequency, customer segmentation, targeting, and re-targeting — can have a significant impact on the success of retailers’ mobile marketing campaigns, according to results from a recently published “Retail Mobile Messaging Study” from OtherLevels.
“OtherLevels, a leading digital marketing platform, describes 19 percent increases in lift in engagement from mobile messages that enabled customers to pre-order items, scan barcodes, or join a retailer’s loyalty program,” according to a provided statement. “The study also noted up to 28 percent increases in lift around mobile app usage based on how recently consumers received mobile messages.”
This is backed up by data showing mobile will play an essential role in ecommerce growth this holiday season. For instance, eMarketer predicts U.S. retail mobile commerce sales will increase more than 32 per cent by the end of this year.
And looking past 2015, Deloitte’s recently released “Global Powers of Retailing 2015” report affirms that mobile retailing is expected to reach $614 billion in annual global sales by 2018.
“The data in our Retail Mobile Messaging Study confirms the basic tenets of mobile marketing, and it gives today’s mobile marketers assurances and clearer guidelines on how to craft, target and deliver mobile messages that are personal, relevant and engaging,” said Ramsey Masri, CEO of OtherLevels. “These client-based results show that message frequency, client segmentation, targeting, and personalized content can produce big gains in engagement and activity with mobile customers.”
Other findings in the report?
Relevance rules.
“Relevant content can create a 19 percent increase in users’ views and clicks, especially if consumers rely on the smartphone as a personal shopping assistant. Retailers noticed a 13.7 percent increase in lift around the ability to add items/products to a shopping list, for example, and nearly 15 percent lift in usage for a sort-by-aisle feature,” the report summary notes.
In addition, retargeting can up message open rates by 50 percent or more. Notably, brand engagement appears to increase with messaging frequency – up to 11.8 percent.
