What Meijer has Learned From its Mobile Initiatives
On the other hand, SMS text messages reach literally 100 percent of mobile phones today; the average text message is read in four minutes; and the average age of a text message user is 36.
Another reason mobile is hot, Romano said, is because of changing consumer lifestyles. Seventy-two percent of the population, for example, use a mobile phone as their alarm clock. What's more, six out of 10 people sleep with a mobile phone physically in bed with them. Finally, more and more people are using mobile coupons, and their response rates are averaging 6 percent to 20 percent.
As an example, Romano discussed a monthly mobile coupon program his company created for Lane Bryant. The program allowed Lane Bryant customers to redeem their mobile coupons in-store or online. The results? Lane Bryant saw a 6 percent response rate and added more than 1,000 new mobile customers per week.
Romano also discussed mobile trends to be on the lookout for. One was geo-fencing, the latest trend in location-based services. Geo-fencing is setting up a virtual perimeter — i.e., a “fence” — around a location, such as a restaurant. When people carry cell phones across that perimeter, the system becomes aware that they're physically nearby and can push information to the phones, such as a list of today’s specials.
Companies like Shopkick, Loopt and Placecast are already providing geo-fencing-related services, but it’s still a largely unknown concept.
Melissa Campanelli is Editor-in-Chief of Total Retail. She is an industry veteran, having covered all aspects of retail, tech, digital, e-commerce, and marketing over the past 20 years. Melissa is also the co-founder of the Women in Retail Leadership Circle.
