Top Retail Trends for Fall 2016 And Beyond

Top Retail Trends for Fall 2016 And Beyond

Some trends that retailers need to keep abreast with to maximize their earnings this shopping season.

• Electronic Payments

Different forms of electronic payment options will dominate the retail scene this shopping season. Along with card payments, retailers must provide the flexibility of mobile payments, e wallets etc. Some key payments options that retailers need to consider seriously are: PayPal , Mercury, Poynt. These are smart payment terminals that integrate several payment options into one.


• Mobile Shopping

Mobile shopping will definitely be on a high. But the important point to note here is that bigger stress is going to be on the fact that mobiles will play an integral role in ancillary sales. Mobile will be a huge platform for webrooming, where in customer will look for the products online and then walk in-store and buy it. Most people on the go are busy surfing on their smart phones, and webrooming has become very common. Hence, mobile presence for brands and stores will provide adequate exposure to prospective customers.


• Consolidated Customer Information

Retailers will have to find ways to integrate various channels and customer touch points to have a unified central database of customers that is enriched at every experience with the customer irrespective of the channel. This is a huge task and brands will have to integrate this in their central strategy.


• Facilitating Smooth and Seamless Shopping

Online shopping has become as common as in-store shopping. What retailers need to work on is making this experience friction-free and smooth. Easy navigation, one click shopping, easy electronic payments, return policy etc., all these things will play major role in deciding the men out of boys in retail.


• Convenience Will Be the Key

Shoppers will choose convenience and value over promotions and offers. Promotions and offers will have their charm, but not at the cost of convenience for the customer. To stay competitive, brands will have to give due importance to personalized offerings, convenient shopping experiences and of course great value to the consumer. The buying power of today’s consumer is more, hence value is more important than a mere discount. And this trend will be on the rise.

Tips on Making Your Business Social Media Friendly

Tips on Making Your Business Social Media Friendly

Social media has not just changed the way we interact but also redefined the way we do business. Companies are now more customer friendly than ever because the negative impact made by a dissatisfied customer is way stronger than the positive impact created by a satisfied customer. With social networking being so strong, word of mouth spreads fast and negative word of mouth spreads faster.

Social media is no more a choice but has become a business basic that needs to be included in the core strategy. It is indeed a great platform to interact with customers. Here are a few tips to help you get started with your social media plan.

• Create an account of your brand on major social media sites. Given the nature of your offering and your target segment, you might pick which sites would be the best places to interact with your customers. For instance, it makes complete sense for HR companies to be a part of Linkedin.


• Keep a tab on what your customers are saying about you. You can subscribe to Google Alerts and customize the settings with your brand name. this way if any customers write anything about you, you get notified by Google. 


• Keep a Google Alerts tab on your competition also. It’s a great way to keep a check on your competitors and keep information about the market.


• Interact with customers on all occasions. Find innovative ways to get in touch with your customers, be it season’s greetings or showing gratitude on a good review or good rating. But the best time to interact with customers is by responding to a bad review or a complaint. It not only gives you the chance to win back a customer but also proves your credibility as a brand that can listen, own up a mistake and promise correction. And that is the kind of attitude that customers also like.


• Take feedback very seriously. Like it’s mentioned above, admitting your mistake in public takes a lot of courage and people really admire that sort of courage.


• Constantly monitor your social media accounts for any recent activity. The better your response time on social media, the better chances of outshining competition.


• Keep your social media accounts very interactive. Create contests, surveys, freebies and all of that. 

Apple Store Update:

Important Points for App Marketers

Apple’s App store has changed, and for good. The changes may not be visibly noticeable, but technically this much needed modification comes in as a sigh for a lot of app developers and marketers out there.

Here is a brief synopsis of the important points that affect app developers and mobile marketers.

Better discoverability

While the ‘Featured’ tab has always been there in the App Store, it has become more intuitive and fair. There will be no paid placement on that page and the apps will not be chosen on the basis of ranking (only). Choosing apps on the basis of user ranking makes it extremely unfair to the newer apps who are still looking at getting to their critical mass. Instead, apps will be featured on the basis of local content, or current fashion, culture or seasonal trends.

This is a great user friendly update. This will also keep app creators and marketers on their toes to keep the app relevant for the users. It can actually be a great marketing feature too. You just have to take the current trends and authentically tie them to your app. For instance, Rio Olympics or end-of-summer fashion or upcoming Autumn trends.

Paid Search Ads

This is still in the beta version until Fall, but Apple’s new search algorithm will be a thing to watch out for. Marketers might want to note that every time a search algorithm changes, be it Apple or Google, it just gets more user relevance/convenience friendly. It would make sense to revamp your apps to suit users’ needs better. Search ads will make your apps visible to the user right when she asks for it. As a marketer, you might want to make comparisons as to spending money on mobile marketing/in-app advertising vs paid search ads, and weight your ROI on different ad spends.

Auto-renewable Subscriptions

Apple’s fight against dead-apps sort of end with the auto-renewable subscription feature. Brands can choose to collect subscription from their users. But an important thing to note here would be that such apps that charge a user, need to be geared up to give that kind of value to the user. There has to a high degree of personalization along with engagement. Moreover, the app has to provide some kind of value in user’s routine or daily life, or users won’t pay up for renewing. This feature aims at putting the life back in the app, although it does mean app developers and marketers need to be on their toes, always.

Buckle-up for The Holiday Season 2016

Buckle-up for The Holiday Season 2016

August is almost over. Come autumn and its going to be Holiday mood all over. People start shopping for home stuff, accessories, winter wear, Holiday apparel and so much more. The gifts may come in later, but a lot of shopping will start as autumn sets in. This is a great time to start marketing preparation for the holiday season. Here’s a quick list of things businesses need to do to be ready for the upcoming holiday season.

• Get an app now. If you are planning on creating an app for your business, the time is now. A lot of people tend to avoid traffic and holiday rush, and mobile shopping numbers and percentage soars every year over the previous.
• Go social. Get active on social networking sites. Plan social campaigns that attract customers to your site. Even paid ads on Facebook give real good value in terms of ROI. The objective here is to be seen, be heard.
• Start creating campaigns around Holiday trends. Check out the winter colors for the season, the latest home and fashion designs and create your campaigns around them.
• Offer more than just discounts. Support a community cause and get people’s attention to it. If your cause is something people relate to, you can look at a successful shopping season.
• Engage people. Create polls, surveys, competitions and other innovative and fun stuff to engage your audience. The aim is to get people’s attention, and then you can tell them about your wonderful Holiday collection and start marketing. But to get started on that, first engage with the human side of the brand.
• Start promoting your business in other apps. For instance, InstaTeam app has a section that promotes local businesses. Getting listed in such platforms provides grater exposure.
• Get personal and real. Personalized marketing is going to be huge. Align your channels, online, in-store, customer support and all. Create customer profiles. Send personalized letters or cards wishing your customers ‘Happy Holidays’ along with personalized discount coupons.

iMessage:

A New Paradigm in Mobile Marketing

Apple’s iMessage announcement has taken the world by storm. It takes mobile texting to a whole new level, and for mobile marketing, it’s a game changer. iMessage would dissolve all the boundaries of messaging, app marketing and social media, placing the power of mobile marketing directly in the hands of the brand. brands will be able to communicate with the consumer one on one, not through a platform.

Here’s a quick roundup on the updates from Apple:

iMessage platform open to third party apps

Apple has opened its iMessage platform to developers. This means that users will have access to unlimited set of apps, and brands will be able to connect to the end user on a one-on-one basis. Suppose a user is chatting with a friend and tells her about a lip-smacking burger she had, and forwards the link from where she bought it, the friend can actually visit the page, check out the details and order the burger, without even leaving the conversation. The possibilities are endless.

Rich media messaging

This is a whole different level of rich media messaging. Simple drag and drop for images, edit or dress-up images as you send them, predictive emojis that automatically (with manual control, of course) replace text with emojis and so much more.

Even videos and website links would be accessible instantly without having to leave the conversation. For brands, this is huge. If a user likes a product and shares the link, other users, (with whom the link is shared) can directly purchase the product right within the application, without leaving the conversation.

Siri goes beyond iOS

Siri would be enabled to interact with third party applications like Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Kik, WeChat and more. Users will be able to give voice commands on these applications as well.

All of this indicates that chatbots on IM is perhaps going to be one of the most powerful marketing channel in the years to come. Brands need to get ready with presence on other social platforms such iMessage advancement would just come as organic growth. Brands also need to start working on finding innovative and interesting ways to get in touch with user to give enriching, rich experiences through personalized marketing.

Need help with mobile marketing? Talk to us at support@xymob.com.

Back-To-School Shopping:

How to En-cash on the Huge Market

Time of the year again when compulsive shopping presents a huge opportunity to retailers across America. While you were planning your back-to-school promotions, chances are your competitors were planning it bigger. So if you are re-working the promotion plan, here are a few tips to help you boost your sales this season and get some prep done before the holiday season.

Go mobile

If you have a website, and are promoting and selling through your online channel, it’s not enough. You need to be where your customers are, and every one is on mobile these days including your customers and competitors. If you have an app, great. If not, have a mobile friendly website. Local businesses can also advertise on mobile apps which can get good publicity.

Go social

Social media marketing can take some time. Although there are some examples out there, but overnight-million-likes stories are still a numbered few. Take the shortcut while its available, use a paid promotion campaign to promote your account. When you have a considerable number of followers, don’t get down to brazen sales tactics. Instead gain popularity amongst your followers by providing useful content like shopping lists or savings schemes.

Facebook presence is essential and any promotion on Facebook will give you the best ROI, but find creative ways to start promoting on Snapchat and Instagram too.

Retargeting advertising can be very fruitful too. Since you know the customer is looking for the product, presenting a great offer can often result into sales.

Promoting on social media has ancillary benefits like creating a community that is all eyes and ears to your brand. Every time you launch a promotion, you will just need to augment on your present promotion. This will have a great lasting effect for years to come.

Go viral

The best marketing is the one where you do not need to market your product at all, your customers do it for you. Create interesting contests, give free giveaways, and brand ambassador benefits that are hard to refuse. People like free stuff. Make it look classy, and you’ll have a whole lot of your customers doing your marketing for you.

Need help with mobile promotions? Contact us at support@xymob.com and we will help you with more ideas and creative campaigns to promote your brand via mobile marketing. .

Pokemon Go: What Businesses Need to Learn

Pokemon Go: What Businesses Need to Learn

Pokemon Go has become a rage in very less time. The augmented reality game has engaged kids and adults likewise with gamers addicted to capturing the in-game digital monsters virtually placed in real-world settings. Non-gamers are affected too. Police have issued warnings about playing the game while driving and there are major safety concerns for users who are glued to their phones or tablets while moving around.

Augmented reality is not new. It has been around for quiet a few years now. Applications like Wikitude World Browser, Yelp Monocle, Google Ingress, SpecTrek, Snapshot Showroom, Theodolite, Augmented Car Finder, Google Sky Map and many others have been using augmented reality. These applications make use of the native features of the user’s smartphone or tablet, like camera, GPS, Contacts, Bluetooth, etc., cleverly integrate them with digital effects and user’s natural surrounding and create a real-life digital experience. From map overlays to virtual showrooms to hi-tech games to virtual tours, augmented reality has so been around.

When augmented reality has been around for so long, why the rage for Pokémon Go? Well, because it’s simple, uncomplicated and really engages the user.

This is a great learning point for marketers. Augmented reality or not, online marketers need to present more real-world interactions and opportunities of engagement to users. The key is not how digital or how mobile friendly a brand is, the key is how well does the brand connect technology to bring convenience, spectacle and engaging experiences to users. Technology needs to be the medium and not the end. The end product always has to be the experience, value or convenience that the user gets.

Most business answers will be radially available if the end product becomes the starting point of all business planning, strategy and design. Do I need an app? Well, does the app add to value to the final product? If yes, then you do need an app. Similarly, the UID, the functionality, technology involvement, online and offline support, the scope of each of this, and lot many other business aspects can be determined by keeping the final product as the goal.

So, to conclude, the point is not how advanced technology is used, but the point is how well does your offering engage and interact with the user.

Need help with your online and offline strategy? Contact us now at support@xymob.com .