In these days of direct deposit and PayPal, it’s increasingly rare that I receive payment via paper check. But when I do, I needn’t travel to a brick-and-mortar bank or even an ATM kiosk. Instead, using the bank’s smartphone app, I simply photograph the front and back of the endorsed check and my deposit is completed instantly. The process is so fool proof that it has even worked seamlessly for this fool, without a single hiccup.
Mobile devices are rapidly changing even the most mundane aspects of our lives, and retail is no exception, a reality explored in Honeywell’s recent white paper, Mobile Marketing: Retail’s Next Frontier. That same smartphone that serves as my mobile bank branch also aids me in the process of shopping.
For example, my local hardware and tool emporium sends weekly coupons by email, and I’m fool enough for quality hand-tools that I don’t consider those messages junk. To redeem a coupon at checkout, I simply pull its embedded barcode up on my smartphone’s screen and the clerk scans the image as my purchases are tallied. Easy, peasy!
Of course, like many, I use my smartphone to scan item barcodes while shopping in physical stores to confirm that the retailer’s current pricing is competitive. So prevalent is that practice, that many retailers now offer to match competitor prices revealed by such mobile searches. The shrewdest retailers learn how to convert what at first blush might appear a competitive disadvantage, into a sale. After all, customers who have gone through the trouble of physically traveling to their stores are in all likelihood customers who are ready to make purchases.
As a case in point, I recently drove to the nearest office-products store in immediate need of a 32-gig micro SD card, hoping that it stocked a version that I’d found in its online store. A clerk identified the item from my smartphone display and confirmed that the store did not stock it. But, it did stock a more expensive alternative, and the clerk closed the deal by offering that to me at the price of the one I’d been seeking. The clerk converted a disadvantage into a sale and upped my feelings of loyalty for the retailer a big notch in the process.
Mobile marketing is the catchphrase in modern retail and, although I’ve referred to myself twice as a fool in this post, I’m not foolish enough to ignore that reality.