The medium of the moment is unarguably mobile. And the behaviours and attitudes of millennial and Gen Z shoppers who are the earliest and most enthusiastic adopters of m-commerce is driving this medium. Retailers, if you haven’t done so already, you would do well to prepare yourselves for the new mobile marketing reality.
In a follow-up to our previous articles on mobile marketing trends and challenges, we now bring you some crucial facts, figures, and forecasts on the same topic. While they mainly relate to the US market, they also apply by analogy to most of the rest of the world, as it is only a question of time till the ripple effect is felt.
Teens & Smartphone Usage
Is it love? Is it hate? The jury’s still out on that one. The market research company eMarketer sound that young people, mostly teenagers, check their devices with almost double the frequency of older people (86 times a day vs. 47 times a day). Yet, 47% of surveyed teens yearn to reduce screen time and are taking measures to do so. So far at least, the attempts don’t seem to have been too successful: 215 minutes per day usage amongst US adults, and this is almost 4 hours!
Read more: Marketing to Millennials
In general, one word feels like it can describe how American teens feel when it comes to smartphone usage – overwhelmed. 58% feel pressured to respond immediately. 52% are glued to their smartphones even when in a group (as are most of those in the group!). 41% feel drowned by the sheer volume of notifications they receive daily.
‘Winning’ retailers and richer mobile experiences
Retail Systems Research (RSR) conducted a survey of US-based retail executives and discovered that most retailers do not really offer distinctively different desktop and mobile experiences. If at all, the mobile experience tends to be lighter on features.
RSR’s research also threw up that there is a far better chance that those retailers who RSR refer to as “winners” — retailers with an above average sales growth rate, year after year — will offer a richer mobile experience. In fact, 29% of them confirmed that their mobile offering was richer than their desktop counterpart. Whereas in the case of the other retailers the figure plummets to 16%.
Winning retailers recognise the importance of the rich mobile experience and clearly understand that the customer decision-making process often starts in the digital domain. So they are actively encouraging it by using mobile at the forefront of their user experience strategies.
Today, not only marketing techniques, but also technical solutions are used to attract the audience. Mobile apps have several flaws: mobile app development is expensive and time consuming, users need to install your application, and it works only on the platform it was created for. Instead, Global Message Services offers web application development. It is a quick-to-market and easy-to-support solution.
What businesses must know about Millennials and Gen Z shoppers
Company size doesn’t matter when it comes to adopting mobile commerce. Whether huge companies or small/medium businesses (SMBs), all need to move in the right direction swiftly and efficiently.
Mobile apps do matter: SMBs might not have the biggest budgets to spend on mobile app development and user acquisition and retention. However, that doesn’t take away from the importance of mobile apps and the rich user experience they can offer. Consumer behaviour of this audience segment shows that they are very keen to engage in-app, with 51% making it clear that were an SMB app to contain discounts and special offers, they would be happy to download it. The value of the app isn’t restricted just to this. It is a huge source of first-party data as well — information which can be used for all marketing channels.
Generate interest through localised information & opportunities: millennial and Gen Z shoppers seek out information at the local level. 31% will download an SMB’s app to know what’s in stock, while 28% say they will download it if it gave them a chance to participate in special events like inaugurations and in-store appearances. Location-infused first-party data can take care of this and fulfil these expectations via an SMB’s app.
Discounts tempt downloads: Particularly in the case of females (61% in the 13-17 age group; 67% in the 18-24 age group), SMB apps offering incentives are happily downloaded to smartphones. First-party data delivered by a mobile app is of huge importance here since just as the right offer will likely strike gold, the wrong one can rapidly lead to a valuable lost customer.
Our GMS team is here to help you make the most of your communications with our top-of-the-line software solutions. All of GMS’ software solutions are cloud-supported, cost-efficient and secure. Drop us a line, and we will find the best option for your business objectives.