What mobile trends mean for moms and retailers
There is an old saying…that to really get to know someone, ask their mother. Seems that moms know all the important stuff about you … birthday of course, what you like to eat, preferences in clothes, colors, etc. Today, mom can’t hold a candle to what my phone knows about me. Today’s moms are even more challenged with kids who are hooked on mobile devices before they ever get to school. What does this mobile tsunami mean for retailing in the very near future?
Revolution à Mass migration to the small screen!
One only needs to browse the headlines to see the mobility tsunami is coming. All predictions I have seen forecast say that by 2015, more people in the world will access the internet by phone than from a desktop. In the US, for this holiday season, smartphone penetration will be 50% … by the following year it is projected to 90%.
Make no mistake … mobile devices are NOT a replacement for a computer. They are geared to connections and consumption, not creation. But, because they are mobile, they are with us 24/7 and create a treasure trove of information about us and our behavior that would probably frighten our mothers if they only knew!
Mobility starts very young … it will be a way of life
I got these stats from my favorite first read - The Morning Eye-Opener. Kevin Coupe quoted a recent Ad Age report with these amazing stats on the US market:
- Half of kids under age 8 have access to a smartphone, tablet, etc.
- 40% of kids age 4 have access to a mobile device
- 10% of these kids use mobile daily for an average of 43 minutes!
If you doubt these stats, just watch what happens on your next flight or watch what kids are doing in the mall. Kids are playing, watching and interacting on mobile media. I’m in Greece this week, and I watched the hotel owner’s 6 year old refuse all attempts to get him to do his math homework … until he could do it on a tablet … which then occupied him for hours.
Grandparents, if you have a tablet and have grandkids … don’t expect to use it while the grandkids visit! I personally like showing photos of where I’ve been to my granddaughter age 21/2. She no longer has the patience to sit in front of the computer … she wants the iPad so we can sit in a comfortable chair … and so SHE can flick through the photos HERSELF.
Hooked on mobility very early … what does this mean?
Sounds like the same alarm bells going off as when people started tracking kids watching that new thing called “Television”. Predictions were that we as kids would somehow be scarred for life. But, somehow most of us survived and became functioning adults. With mobility providing instant access to anything and everything, parenting becomes even more challenging and important in terms of guiding kid’s choices.
Parents and teachers be prepared! Today’s students will not be content to wait till they get to a computer … they will expect access anytime anywhere. Some of the best teachers I know are bringing smartphones right in to class a part of the learning process. We have written previous posts on how mobility will change education by putting textbooks online and enabling everyone to check out digital books from great libraries across the world. Just ask US book, music and video retailers what mobility has done to their business.
The mobile tsunami is here now!
You have to be blind and deaf to miss the migration to the small screen. But, it is not the consumer preference for mobile smartphones that is significant. It is what we as consumers are doing with mobile devices that makes this mobile migration so significant.
Yes, we play Angry Birds on our smartphones when we are bored. Beyond talking and surfing, we are using those mobile devices in ways that we never used computers before! We not only check in for flights, we use our phones to get through security. We are ordering pizza, shopping online and can even pay with our phones at checkout.
All of this creates trails and patterns of behavior. Because mobile devices have location tracking, consumers know where they are … and they can use it to search for nearby restaurants, stores, etc. They can also opt to “check in” and make their presence known, which opens up a 5th dimension of retail and marketing inconceivable before.
What retailers are doing right now …
If you don’t have a mobile strategy right now in retail you’re late. At a minimum, you should be piloting:
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Social media an location based offers
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Location based tracking and check in like Foursquare
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Even just simple text messages to phones
When Walmart suddenly creates individual Facebook pages for each of its 4600 stores in the US, you get the sense that mobility and social media marketing have arrived as best practice for even mass merchants.
Mobile CRM – Future potential that is a bit scary
Retailers have known for a long time that it is easier and cheaper to market to their best customers who tend to visit more and buy more. So, retailers have spent millions on consumer segmentation and trying to figure how to best reach them through advertising in right media.
Evan Schuman had a great post describing Mobile CRM in the Mall and what is realistically possible today in terms of tracking consumers in a mall with mobile devices:
The vendor behind the trial, a U.K. firm called Path Intelligence, pledged that "no mobile phone usernames or numbers could be accessed" and that "all we do is log the movement of a phone around an area and aggregate this to provide trend data for businesses."
Ok that tracking part is real … and now for the scary possibility:
What if a mall representative called one of its retail residents and said, "We're now tracking a woman who has spent $980 in the last hour and she has just walked into your store. For a fee, I'll tell you exactly where she's standing right now. Deal?"
Retail Reality – The face of retail is changing rapidly. Mobility has the potential to be a far more disruptive force in retail than selling online.
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Jacqueline, we always appreciate your comments and insights!
But I may have under estimated a 3rd C for mobility. At least in terms of the iPad2 there seems to be a fairly roboust ability to be "creative" in terms of music, photos and movies. But I also have to admit that smartphones and iPads are very compelling for consuming after a long day of creating!
Chris
Posted by: Chris Petersen | November 17, 2011 at 05:44 PM
Connections and consumption - pretty much sum it up! Very wise context!
Posted by: Jacqueline Franklin | November 17, 2011 at 05:23 PM