May 10, 2012, Women’s Wear Daily, Cotton Incorporated

With nearly half of all American adults (46%) owning smartphones — a jump Pew Research says is up from 35% last May — the mobile retailing market is only poised to grow. The retail conundrum: how to use mobile capabilities to bring consumers back in-store.

Lori Schafer, executive retail adviser at SAS Institute and author of Branded! How Retailers Engage Consumers with Social Media & Mobility, says mobile commerce must do more than promote sales and discounts.

“If retailers have customers in their stores on a mobile device, they need to give them an incentive to stay,” says Schafer. “They need to use the device to promote exclusives, great service, and generally make the consumer feel like a valued part of their program. There are a whole lot of ways to do this rather than cutting price.”

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SkuLoop’s Michelle Crames, founder and CEO, helps stores create their own personalized, digital promotions. She described a program created for Ricki’s, a 140-chain store in Canada.

“We offered $10 off $50 in regularly priced merchandise,” Crames explains. “Customers could redeem the coupon online or in-store. We saw 70% of redemptions took place in-store. And we drove a 75% lift in the average in-store transaction value because when consumers went to a store, Ricki’s could upsell. Also, shoppers tweeted or posted to Facebook about the coupon and where they were shopping.”

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