Marketing Archives - Page 5 of 22

Most Americans Say Pandemic Has Made Them More Conscious Consumers

Posted on March 16, 2021 by shopkick

New Shopkick survey compares consumer behavior, concerns, and spending habits over the past 12 months

Continue reading “Most Americans Say Pandemic Has Made Them More Conscious Consumers”

Super Bowl Ads Fell Short on Influencing Purchase Decisions

Posted on February 22, 2021 by shopkick

Shopkick survey uncovers why consumers were not swayed to spend, and which brands came out on top

Brands may have dished out upwards of $5 million each to place an ad during this year’s Super Bowl, but for most Americans, these sought-after slots didn’t drive purchases. It turns out, only eight percent of consumers actually bought a product in the days after seeing this year’s ads, and of those, 75 percent said they were already a frequent purchaser of the brand or product.

Shopkick asked nearly 20,000 Americans about the impact of this year’s Big Game ads, as well as the genres they believe are most effective in influencing them to make purchases.

Insights include:

Purchasing Power: Of the eight percent of respondents who purchased a product after seeing this year’s Super Bowl ads, Gen Zers made up the largest segment (14 percent), compared to Millennials (9 percent), Gen Xers (7 percent) and Baby Boomers (6 percent), trending opposite of the common narrative that Gen Z can’t be reached through traditional advertising.
Same Day Spending: Of those who made a purchase, 13 percent say they bought products on Super Bowl Sunday just after seeing the ads, followed by 27 percent who purchased the next day and 60 percent who purchased within the following week.
Brands That Brought Home the Bacon: This year’s advertisers in food and beverage, alcohol and home products that successfully influenced consumers to make a purchase included Doritos (58 percent), M&M’s (52 percent), Cheetos (50 percent), Dawn (47 percent), Frito-Lay (39 percent), Mountain Dew (26 percent), Swiffer (24 percent), Hellmann’s Mayo (23 percent), Chobani (22 percent), Bud Light beer (20 percent), Huggies (18 percent), PepsiCo’s Rockstar Energy (11 percent) and Stella Artois (10 percent). All other ads in these brand categories influenced less than 10 percent of consumers to purchase products.
Can’t Be Swayed: Of the 92 percent of consumers who did not purchase products, reasons varied. Besides simply not watching the Super Bowl (44 percent), respondents also said they enjoyed the ads but did not want to make a purchase (28 percent), they didn’t pay attention to the ads (15 percent), they didn’t like the ads (6 percent) or they prefer other brands and products (3 percent).
Laughter Wins Dollars: In terms of which advertising genres consumers feel are most effective in influencing them to spend, respondents said comedy (35 percent), followed by values-based ads (34 percent), serious or emotional ads (8 percent), ads featuring scenery and nature (7 percent), and celebrity features (6 percent). Surprisingly, when compared by generation, the largest segments of Gen Z (42 percent), Millennials (40 percent) and Gen X (36 percent) said comedy ads are most effective in influencing them, while the largest segment of Boomers said values-based ads (37 percent).

The online survey was conducted between Feb. 11-15.

Secrets of the path to purchase that drive consumer behavior—and sales

Posted on February 3, 2021 by shopkick

How does a consumer move from complete unawareness to the recognition of need, choice of product, and decision of a particular brand? Marketers have pondered this question since the dawn of advertising. The classic sales funnel was once a useful model for understanding the process, breaking it all down to: Awareness, Interest, Decision, and Action. Each marketing activity was then created to specifically focus on moving prospects from one stage to the next in a linear fashion. Continue reading “Secrets of the path to purchase that drive consumer behavior—and sales”

Product launch best practices that capture your target market

Posted on January 29, 2021 by shopkick

Even with a great product and a known brand, every product launch poses uncertainties. About 10,000 new products debut every year in the CPG industry alone, and within two years, 85% of these items are categorized as failures and are scrapped.

There is no precise formula for capturing the adoration of your desired target market, but there are ways of harnessing decision science best practices to understand who your potential buyers are, what they want, and how to reach them. Studying the latest product launch best practices can provide meaningful insights into how to make your next product launch a surefire success. Let’s explore the top four practices from 2020 in more detail.

The Top 4 Product Launch Best Practices From 2020

Many of the top failures of all-time could have been prevented by following these best practices:

1. Collecting Actionable Data to Inform Marketing.

Brands need to decide exactly who their products are designed for. Effective targeting requires a robust database of omnichannel information about shopper wishlists, buying history, sharing history, in-store behaviors, preferences, life-stage, and demographics. Using A/B testing to pinpoint your precise demographic accurately can result in an 80% higher trial rate and 17% higher repeat purchase rate.

Today’s consumers are seeking a highly relevant, personalized shopping experience. Far too many campaigns fall flat due to a failure of activating local campaigns based on store-level data. Loyalty is largely connected to personalized marketing, which means timing offers based on purchase frequency, proximity, and past purchases are essential to ensuring an experience based on individual relevance.

2. Rewarding Repeat Buyers.

Offers and rewards are just as important for soliciting repeat purchases as they are for driving new product trials. Keeping tabs on buyers and retargeting with ads, texts, and offers is an effective way to maintain interest.

A third of new consumers are obtained via contests, which are effective at encouraging trial and expanding presence. Creating a sweepstake with clear expectations—like extra entries for social media shares—is a great way to make valuable connections.

Loyalty programs are typically associated with retailers rather than brands. However, eCommerce platforms offer a means of rewarding repeat customers who may have some level of loyalty fatigue, or offering prospective customers an added incentive to try your products over the competition’s. Rather than trying to reinvent the wheel, partnering with an established shopping app can improve reach and retention while achieving a significant return on investment (ROI).

3. Engaging New Customers to Encourage Loyalty.

A successful product launch consists of more than converting sales and convincing shoppers there is value in trying your product. Once a purchase is made by the customer, it shouldn’t be viewed as the end of marketing efforts, but rather the beginning. Since it takes approximately eight purchases for a trial buyer to become loyal to a brand, creating an onboarding experience is crucial.

The best product launches involve the use of email, retargeting ads, social media, text push notifications, rewards programs, and shopping apps to engage and support consumers long after the first purchase.

Does the buyer know how to get the most from the purchase? Is another offer necessary to prompt the next sale? Are there complementary products that could help buyers enjoy the new product more? Aftermarket information delivered by email, text, phone call, eCommerce app, or mail can be a key differentiator.

4. Choosing an Incremental Marketing Strategy in Pursuit of Long-Term Success.

Many marketers make the mistake of investing heavily during the first year of promotion, but between the first and second purchase, brands lose roughly half of all buyers. This process of attrition continues until stability is achieved around the eighth purchase, so marketers will need to think long-term.

An incremental marketing strategy involves breaking up a long-term marketing plan into a series of campaigns and assigning milestones to determine the effectiveness of the tactics, messages, and methods used. Successful campaigns will be built upon, and poor performers will be halted before more money is committed.

Find a Product Launch Partner to Double Your Odds of Success

Even if a failed product launch doesn’t lead to financial ruin, it can lead to a loss in reputation, mass layoffs, and damaged morale. A proactive approach that employs product launch best practices and uses the latest technology is certainly preferable to managing a rebound. Sometimes it can take years or even decades to erase the effects of a product flop.

Shopkick is a proven marketing partner for brands launching new products, helping them employ many of the aforementioned best practices.

Here’s how it works:

Before your product launch, Shopkickers have the opportunity to discover your brand as they search for rewards offers in their area, browse through your curated lookbook, and watch your branded video ads.
Upon entering a store where your products are sold, Shopkickers are invited to engage with your campaign by scanning the barcodes of or purchasing select items in exchange for “kicks” (rewards points).
Accumulated kicks are redeemed for gift cards of the Shopkickers’ choice, solidifying a memorable, meaningful consumer experience without discounts or coupons that can erode your profit margins.
With the Shopkick app, brands can collect consumer behavior data, personalize interactions, and continually reach out to new or existing shoppers.

In essence, partners can take advantage of incremental marketing strategies, piggybacking off Shopkick’s audience to expand their own market share while also surprising and delighting prospective customers with rewards as soon as they enter a store. Using beacon technology, partners can capture important data about how their target audience behaves in-store, and continue building better relationships that ensure today’s buyers are tomorrow’s buyers, too.

Looking for more product launch best practices? Contact Shopkick to gain insights into developing a highly successful product launch campaign as a partner or read success stories for more ideas on how technology can be used to drive trial and purchase.

Which customer loyalty marketing variables are most influential for repeat engagement?

Posted on January 27, 2021 by shopkick

Customer loyalty involves an ongoing, positive relationship between a customer and a brand or retailer. Loyal customers are invaluable, especially since 80% of a company’s revenue comes from 20% of their existing customer base. They also have a higher conversion rate—the probability of selling to an existing customer is 60% to 70%, while selling to a new prospect has a 5% to 20% likelihood. Plus, having a high percentage of return customers is great for employee morale, signifying that you’ve all worked hard to create a retail space that successfully engages consumers.

Repeat engagement is a significant factor in business growth, profitability, and long-term success. Loyal customers are worth about 10x their initial purchase, and just a 5% increase in loyalty can boost a business’ profits by 95%.

Loyalty is a worthwhile goal, but it’s easier said than done. You could have great individual products and best-in-class customer service, but can still fall flat in attracting repeat engagement. True loyalty can be thought of more as brand affinity, where people make a conscious decision to choose your brand consistently because they feel emotionally connected to your values and ideals, and trust that you can deliver what they need. A number of loyalty marketing variables can positively affect engagement and long-term business.

5 of the Most Impactful Customer Loyalty Marketing Variables

When deciding which customer loyalty marketing variables to focus on, you should focus on these five:

Customer Satisfaction

Customer satisfaction is one of the most important factors when creating long-lasting customer loyalty. With competition greater than ever, the experience you provide for your customers is critical. In fact, 81% of consumers are more likely to be repeat purchasers if they have a positive experience. If they have a negative experience though, 95% will stop buying from you altogether, and share their poor experience with friends and family.

Realistically, no matter how hard you and your employees try to create a perfect customer experience each and every time, there are bound to be instances where the interaction doesn’t go as planned. This doesn’t mean you lost the customer—yet. What then becomes important is how you handle the problem.

Perceived service quality carries as much weight as perceived product quality in the minds of consumers. Nearly half of customers will remain loyal after a bad experience. In fact, people who have had a bad experience that was resolved in a satisfactory manner are more loyal than customers who never had a problem. It all boils down to trust.

Trust

Trust is the belief that the business is credible, experienced, and will act in the customer’s best interest. Multiple positive engagements with a business can build trust over time. Businesses can also exude trust through their online content, media public relations, online reviews, testimonials, videos, partner associations, and years in service. It is also critical for brands to deliver on their promises and uphold their policies and offers.

Trusted brands have better relationships with their customers. One study found that three-quarters of consumers will actively recommend businesses they trust. They’ll be willing to pay premiums, try your new products first, and stick with your brand even as competitors rise in prominence and popularity.

When trust is established, the customer perceives congruent values and is more willing to engage in future dealings.

Self-Identification With Your Brand

Having strong values as a brand contributes to trust, transparency, and reputation, but it also matters to customers too. Self-congruence stands out as a preeminent factor in loyalty measurements. Customers form an emotional connection when their values mirror the brand’s values, image, and “personality.” In fact, 71% of consumers prefer to buy from brands that align with their values, and 64% of customers attribute these shared values to having a strong relationship with a brand.

Lifestyle and self-image can take a number of forms and may vary greatly across a brand’s audience. For this reason, marketers often focus on campaigns geared toward specific buyer personas.

Perceived Brand Value

Customers’ value perception is a necessary condition for developing brand loyalty, and a loyalty program is an extremely popular and effective way to increase a brand’s value. Sixty-nine percent of customers say brand/retailer choice is determined by where they can earn loyalty rewards.

With loyalty programs, value is demonstrated by: the cash value of rewards, choice of rewards, perceived likelihood of achieving rewards, and ease of use. Luxuries are valued higher than necessities in most programs, hence why boasting VIP services and free gifts can prove particularly effective. Joining a loyalty program can promote a sociable aspect and sense of community that enhances customer satisfaction.

Commitment

Commitment involves the willingness to expend maximum effort to maintain an ongoing relationship. Committed brands go out of their way to personalize communications and reach out with relevant promotions and information. They ensure that their customers will receive the same high-quality experience each time they interact with the brand. Commitment is fueled by ongoing benefits accrued through the relationship over time; the more favorable interactions a shopper has, the more the shopper feels trust, commitment, and loyalty.

Build Customer Loyalty and Drive Repeat Engagement With a Third-Party App

If you are looking to increase engagement and loyalty, partnering with a mobile app that people are already loyal to can improve your brand favorability. Shopkick is a leading mobile platform that rewards shoppers with “kicks” (rewards points) for engaging with partnering brands and retailers and completing various engagement-related activities, like: checking in at partnering stores, scanning the barcodes of select items, watching branded videos, browsing curated lookbooks, or making purchases—whether online or in-store.

Customers can then redeem accumulated kicks for gift cards of their choosing, which boosts goodwill toward brands they’ve already interacted with. Partners can effectively increase trial engagement and purchase consideration without slashing prices or eroding brand value. Associating with a well-established platform like Shopkick can increase trust and demonstrate a brand’s commitment to meeting shoppers’ wants and needs.

The key to repeat engagement is assuring shoppers they’ve gained a world of benefits by choosing your brand. Partnering with our interactive mobile shopping platform can help foster customer satisfaction, brand/customer alignment, and long-term loyalty.

Begin incorporating customer loyalty marketing variables that matter through a Shopkick partnership. Read our success stories or contact us to learn how to become a partner and start driving repeat engagement.

Customer Loyalty Marketing: An Ultimate Guide for Brands in 2021

Posted on January 15, 2021 by shopkick

The coronavirus pandemic was a huge disruptor for customer loyalty programs in 2020. Whether due to restrictions, economic hardships, social distancing, or discomfort with public settings, shopping patterns and behaviors have shifted and will continue to shift well into the next year. While many are excited for a fresh start in 2021, America’s health experts are still unsure of when our country could see some normalcy again—predictions now forecast the end of 2021’s third quarter. This means that brands will need to remain vigilant into 2021 and approach their customer loyalty marketing with careful thought and strategy.

Here’s what we know about customer habits in 2020:

Shoppers are trying new brands. A McKinsey report found that 75% of consumers have tried new brands and retailers. Top reasons for defection include lack of product availability, as well as better prices and promotions. Brick-and-mortar retailers and brands should adopt the latest technology and strive for better synchronicity across all channels, from brick-and-mortar stores to web to wholesale.
Shoppers value convenience. While lack of availability was the most common disruptor, other harmful issues affecting loyalty, according to another study, are difficult returns processes and clunky apps or websites that are not user-friendly. Loyalty best practices include optimizing the customer experience with: free and simple returns policies, click-and-collect, priority pickups, multiple modes of communication, app personalization, and an above-and-beyond digital experience. Making a meaningful effort to show you care about consumers’ common pain points and are working hard to resolve them is a key pillar to creating an emotional connection that translates to deep-rooted, long-lasting loyalty.

How the Ultimate Guide to Customer Loyalty Marketing Will Look in 2021

If 2020 taught us anything, it’s that the customer experience does not always go perfectly. But mobilizing an efficient response can significantly increase brand affinity and smooth over any bumps that may have arisen. This ultimate guide to customer loyalty marketing looks at best practices to take away from 2020 and trends to look out for in 2021, including communication strategies, location-based marketing, click-and-collect, premium perks, and strategic partnerships that add value.

Timely, Relevant Communication

Fifty-eight percent of customers will remain loyal to a company that keeps them informed with timely, relevant information. Reaching out is important, but the expectation is that your marketing will be targeted to a specific individual’s past browsing and purchasing history, wishlist, demographics, location, and stated preferences.

Keeping the messaging pertinent to consumers’ present time lets consumers know that you are paying attention, listening, watching, and are invested in their happiness.

Apps have become an essential communication and data collection tool for loyalty programs, since nearly all consumers are using mobile devices on their shopping runs. Going one step further, beacon technology allows brands to connect with shoppers on-the-go in the most timely, personalized manner possible.

When a shopper passes a certain aisle, walks past a competitor’s store, or spends a certain amount of time in a particular part of the store, brands can send specific messages relevant to that activity, capturing shoppers at the most opportunistic time for conversion.

There are many ways to effectively engage with customers:

Send a series of onboarding welcome messages to educate and assist new customers with loyalty program features.
Test different promotional messages to see which drive more sustained engagement and transactional behavior.
Automate texts based on consumer behaviors, like signing up for an event, passing a store, or creating a wishlist.
Personalize offers based on past purchase history, offering greater rewards for frequent buyers and VIPs.

While email, social media, and in-store promotions have their place, focusing on mobile is more timely than ever, since 60% of U.S. loyalty program members between the ages of 18-34 use a mobile app to manage and redeem rewards.

Customer-First Focus

Earning loyalty involves a simple strategy: Put the customer first. Loyalty is an emotional state more than a rational choice. When you provide significant value and express your dedication to the customer’s best interests, the reciprocal enthusiastic devotion will follow.

Loyalty doesn’t derive from discounts, but from feeling attended to, cared for, and significant. If shoppers feel like the business doesn’t care about them, especially in this day and age where competition is abundant, they’ll take their valuable dollars elsewhere.

Expectations are ever-rising as thoughtful innovators raise the bar of customer service. As a result, companies are increasingly implementing new conveniences that attract and maintain their customer base.

Local-First Marketing

Consumers are largely dispersed due to COVID-19. Some urban workers are now spending the majority of their time in the suburbs, working from home; others who have lost their jobs are shifting into new roles and neighborhoods.

Proximity marketing tools like beacons and GPS-based apps give brands the ability to target smaller communities on a hyper-local level, rather than sending out sweeping marketing messages across mass markets.

Personalized mobile marketing on a local level involves:

Greeting shoppers upon entering a store to stay top-of-mind.
Guiding consumers to products.
Sending helpful, timely information.
Providing motivating local deals.

Given that 89% of companies who implemented location-based marketing saw an increase in sales and 84% saw higher engagement rates, it’s no surprise that this successful tactic is used to cultivate long-term loyalty.

Click-and-Collect Convenience

Buy Online Pickup In-Store (BOPIS), otherwise known as Click-and-Collect, had a big year in 2020, with nearly 70% of consumers taking advantage of this convenient new service.

Even as widespread fears of virus contamination peaked, shoppers proved their commitment to brick-and-mortar. They may have consolidated more shopping into fewer trips, but only 1 in 4 shoppers replaced the traditional shopping experience with eCommerce.

Modern shoppers operate in an omnichannel environment, where they interact with brands through various channels throughout a single shopping experience. BOPIS removes shipping wait times for shoppers who want their goods right away, alleviates wait-in-line bottlenecks with advance payment, and provides the sort of personal attention that drives loyalty.

Premium Perks

Traditionally, brands thought the most valuable incentive they had was a price-based offer. However, research indicates that 87% of loyalty members who are satisfied with the program’s special perks and benefits will remain faithful to the brand even if competitors are offering lower prices. Trust, convenience, and comfort can go a long way.

So what do “premium perks” look like in 2021? Free shipping is the most desirable perk cited by premium loyalty members.

Other premium perks include:

VIP privileges like “first to know” about new product launches, sales, and events.
Special savings or double-point days for the most dedicated loyalty club members
Status perks like premium parking spots, skip-the-line benefits, and exclusive event invitations.
Social media shoutouts
Complimentary upgrades
One-to-one customer support
Flexible returns
Birthday gifts

Strategic Partnerships

How can your brand offer greater value in 2021? The answer could be found in a strategic partnership. Brands have always joined forces with other equally successful companies to better serve their existing customers and reach out to new audiences.

For instance, a leading winery partnered with Shopkick, a mobile reward shopping app, to drive awareness, consideration, and trial of their products through an inventive “Spring Entertaining” campaign. Shopkick first leveraged engaging lookbook content, branded in-app videos, and promo units that emphasized the products’ ability to pair well with recipes, inspiring users with ways to use the products.

Once consumers were in-store, Shopkick incentivized them to engage with and purchase the winery’s products through “kicks” (reward points) that can be redeemed for a gift card of their choosing once enough are accumulated. To drive incremental purchases, Shopkick awarded more kicks to shoppers who made unplanned purchases of the winery’s products.

The results were significant—there was an 83% lift in awareness; 78% of shoppers never heard of the products before; and 49% of purchases were incremental.

In 2021, Compassion and Convenience Will Go a Long Way

Now more than ever, companies need to focus on extending compassion and convenience. While offering great deals and enticing promotions cultivate goodwill with customers, they are not effective long-term strategies for increasing loyalty. Brands that consider alternate methods of rewarding their loyal shoppers with free sample surprises, reward points, gift cards, contests, and differentiating VIP services will find that brand affinity and long-term loyalty come naturally.

Top 6 benefits of mobile marketing in retail: Everything you need to know for 2021

Posted on December 18, 2020 by shopkick

There’s no doubt mobile devices have become a ubiquitous, indispensable part of the American lifestyle. It is reported that 96% of Americans own a cellphone, with 81% being smartphones. This percentage has nearly doubled in less than a decade. The average smartphone user checks their device 47 times a day and spends nearly four hours browsing mobile content. Forecasts estimate that 73% of Internet users will access the web solely by smartphone as soon as 2025.

These statistics show that mobile will remain and continue to grow as a vital link to personalized, timely, location-relevant, and rewarding information. The benefits of mobile marketing in retail cannot be overstated. If your retail establishment has been on the fence about whether to invest more heavily in 2021 or hold off, here are six compelling reasons to pursue mobile marketing strategies with the greatest possible dispatch.

Marketing Efficiency.

Text message marketing and push notifications pay off. In a study of 300 businesses, 72% found that mobile and web app push notifications offer a greater or equal return on investment (ROI) when compared to email.

A little over half of retailers spend 21% or more of their digital marketing budgets on mobile, typically as a way to acquire new customers.

Further, 82% of companies say push notifications help them meet or exceed their business goals.

In addition to the efficiencies these marketing tactics provide retailers and businesses, customers’ response to these marketing efforts far exceeds other methods.

It is reported that the average open rate for text message marketing campaigns is 98% vs. email marketing campaigns which have a 20% open rate.

Another study also found that push notifications can increase app `by up to 88% and boost app retention rates by 3-10x.

Only 14% of retailers are considered “mobile-first” retailers, but this elite group sees a number of benefits:

66% say mobile increases customer satisfaction.
65% say mobile increases sales revenue.
62% say mobile has made their businesses more efficient.
33% say mobile has lowered the cost of providing services to customers.

Customer Satisfaction.

Mobile devices have largely become the digital media consumption vehicle of choice, with two-thirds of Americans engaging with the web on smartphones rather than desktops.

Further, smartphones are the preferred mode of managing a loyalty program, with 70% of shoppers feeling more satisfied with a mobile app over a physical card, web app, or mobile wallet.

Through a mobile rewards app like Shopkick, consumers not only have the convenience of their program, points, and personal information in the palm of their hand, but they also have access to a wealth of information that can better inform their purchasing decisions.

Aside from consumers benefiting from the information provided by mobile rewards apps, retailers benefit just as much! Mobile rewards apps can hold a myriad of data, like past searches and purchases, favorites, and wish lists.

Retailers can use this data to create a personalized shopping experience for their consumers, providing them with tailored recommendations and helpful information all along the customer journey. In other words, retailers who can see the past can better inform the present.

Location-Based Relevance.

Ninety percent of customers are willing to share their location as long as they receive something of value in return. This figure is up from just 20% a decade ago. Retailers can interact with locals to boost store traffic on a slow day or use contextual details to determine who is most likely to benefit from their products at the moment. For instance, a downtown basketball arena is a great place to market if you’re a sporting goods retailer or neighboring restaurant.

Instant Rewards.

Instant gratification, like real-time rewards, is preferred by 63% of shoppers. Personalized and/or surprise rewards are also appreciated by loyalty club members who seek greater communication and connection with their favorite retailers. Almost 60% of consumers believe earning reward points is one of the most valued aspects of the shopping experience. And mobile is one of the top delivery vehicles, with 48% of loyalty program members rating SMS texts as “highly valuable.”

Lasting Impact and Increased Brand Value.

Mobile marketing helps retailers stay top of mind and drives incremental sales long after shoppers engage in smartphone-based promotions.

To successfully accomplish this, retailers partner with Shopkick, a leading mobile shopping app that drives engagement and rewards loyalty. The platform rewards shoppers with “kicks” (reward points) for completing a number of engaging activities, such as stepping into partnering retailers’ stores, locating and scanning the barcodes of promoted products, watching branded videos, browsing curated lookbooks, shopping with a linked credit card, and making retail purchases.

Once enough kicks are accumulated, they can be redeemed for a gift card of the shopper’s choosing (which can potentially be a gift card with the retailer where they initially earned the kicks).

Visa Decision Sciences measured retail sales for 12 months prior to initiating a partnership with Shopkick. They wanted to determine the incrementality of Shopkick’s program, and identify how many sales, transactions, and driven customers would not have occurred without Shopkick.

VISA found that 57% of all sales driven by Shopkick were incremental. The mobile campaigns were an effective way for retailers to expand their reach to new audiences and increase sales with new customers, who accounted for 73% of sales. Shopkick became a crucial platform for sustaining engagement and driving repeat purchases.

The benefits of mobile marketing in retail continue to create prosperity for businesses in 2020, and are almost guaranteed to continue doing so going into 2021. Partnering with an existing mobile app is one of the easiest and most cost-effective ways to dive into mobile marketing campaigns. An added perk of working with an existing mobile platform is that you can access your partner’s unique user base to grow your own audience. Membership for apps like Shopkick continues to grow, year over year, so why wait until the new year to get started on your very own mobile retail marketing campaign?

Comparing customer loyalty programs: Which marketing strategy is right for your brand?

Posted on December 11, 2020 by shopkick

Customer loyalty does more than signify the groundwork of a fruitful, long-term relationship between brand and customer; it provides a multitude of strategic benefits that improve the health and success of a brand. Continue reading “Comparing customer loyalty programs: Which marketing strategy is right for your brand?”

Top 3 retail app trends that will drive sales in 2021

Posted on December 4, 2020 by shopkick

Personalization Across Channels

Shopping across multiple channels is now common practice, with 85% of shoppers starting a purchase on one device and finishing on another. Consumers also now expect a personalized experience when shopping, with 80% more likely to buy from a retailer providing a personalized experience.

As a result, retailers must find a way to unify and personalize the customer experience across all channels. To help guide this strategy, retailers track activity across their web, mobile, and brick-and-mortar stores.

Cross-channel connection arms retailers with information about what individual shoppers are browsing, wish-listing, liking, buying, and reviewing online, whether via mobile or in-person. Retailers can then use this data to develop their strategy and create relevant messages, tailored offers, and curated content to keep shoppers engaged.

For instance, Sephora’s Beauty Insider Program saves information on hair and skin type as the basis of their tailored product recommendations. They change landing pages based on recent browsing history and send out “replenish” discounts for items shoppers purchased in the past.

Personalization can even lower acquisition costs up to 50%, lift revenues by 5–15%, and improve spending efficiency by 10–30%.

Personalizing push notifications is an extremely effective way to re-engage mobile users and increase conversions. The most successful notifications use images, animated GIFs, videos, emojis, quizzes, coupons, and fun copy to engage shoppers. Push campaigns can be based on past purchases, designed for hyperlocal sales, or centered on favorite categories. Triggers for notifications may include location, days since last login, recent purchase activity, or even shopping at a competitor’s location.

There are several ways to encourage shoppers to keep push notifications activated. You can develop a homescreen widget that appears every few weeks, reminding users of the benefits of enabling push, or you can utilize abandoned shopping cart notifications, which can increase app revenue by up to 15%.

Beacons are tools retailers can utilize in their effort to personalize the shopper experience. Beacons allow retailers to gather actionable consumer data and take personalization strategies offline and into the real world. The shopper preferences and behavioral insights collected from beacons can then be used to inspire events, products, or new services.

In-Store Mobile Experiences

In-store mobile experiences are increasingly becoming integrated into retail shopping apps to create strong and meaningful customer connections, which ultimately lead to sales.

What defines an in-store mobile experience varies, but ensuring your app addresses common pain points shoppers are faced with in-stores provides a solid foundation for building that dual-facing mobile/brick-and-mortar shopping experience.

Offline shoppers often turn to mobile in-stores to retrieve information that store displays and packaging may be lacking. Given this, successful shopping apps typically include: in-depth product information, reviews, pairing suggestions, and how-to videos. Aiding consumer research increases the likelihood of making the sale.

Shoppers also turn to mobile when they can’t find what they need on the shelves. Walmart’s mobile app comes with a barcode scanner for price and inventory checks. It can also be used to save items to order online later. Mobile coupons can help prevent showrooming—which is the practice of browsing items in-store, only to buy online or with a competitor.

Of course, there are many FUN ways to engage mobile in-store shoppers using gamification strategies, which create a more immersive shopping experience. Shopkick is a popular mobile shopping rewards app that specializes in enhancing the shopping experience through unique engagement tactics. One such way is through in-store “treasure hunts” that drive consumers through the purchase funnel. This gamification strategy influences purchase behavior in three main steps: product awareness, at-shelf engagement, and rewards.

To see this concept in-action, you can look to Kraft’s campaign with Shopkick. Kraft wanted to drive trial, consideration, and sales across multiple brands during the holiday baking season. We first built pre-shop consideration by sharing in-app recipe content that used three of the main products Kraft wanted to promote. Once in-store, Shopkickers were sent to find these products in-aisle and were encouraged to physically engage with the products via barcode scans in exchange for kicks. Extra kicks were offered if all three products were bought, increasing the likelihood of purchase. Over 9 million Shopkickers physically engaged with the products at-shelf, with 27% converting to purchase for a 7.6x return on investment (ROI).

Advanced mCommerce Capabilities

Most apps now allow users to shop directly through them. Ideally, a mobile app should automatically sync with the user’s digital website login credentials, that way activity on one channel can easily and quickly be picked up on another.

Modern retail apps are also offering more convenient ways for consumers to pay for their items, enabling payment methods like Apple Pay, Google Wallet, and Venmo, as well as the ability to store a credit card. This flexibility can reduce cart abandonment by 8%.

To create the best mobile app experience possible, it’s important for retailers to perform incremental A/B testing in order to optimize their current strategy. Retailers will gather actionable insights, allowing them to create more helpful and engaging visual prompts to increase the number of completed transactions. For instance, many retailers use progress bars and guest checkout options to ease impatience.

Ensure You’re Incorporating 2021 Retail App Trends With the Help of Shopkick

Shopkick incorporates the latest and greatest in retail app trends, successfully boosting brand awareness, shopper engagement, and revenue. Mobile shoppers can interact with the Shopkick app from home, on-the-go, or in-store, enabling partnering retailers and brands to engage with shoppers wherever they are. Consumers can make purchases with their favorite retailers online through the Shopkick app, or at their brick-and-mortar store, increasing the chances of capturing a sale.

By focusing on rewards instead of discounts, there’s no profit margin dilution. And while no purchase is necessary to earn rewards, our strategic method of rewarding shoppers for their engagement builds brand affinity and loyalty, often leading many Shopkickers to purchase (with the added bonus of extra kicks awarded!).

BOPIS eCommerce is the next wave in omnichannel marketing

Posted on November 19, 2020 by shopkick

Buy online pickup in-store, also known as BOPIS, is an omnichannel eCommerce strategy whose name is pretty self-explanatory—consumers buy products online, and then pick up their purchased items in-store, offering previously unavailable speed and convenience. Continue reading “BOPIS eCommerce is the next wave in omnichannel marketing”

Leveraging beacon mobile marketing technology to increase awareness and sales

Posted on November 18, 2020 by shopkick

Beacon mobile marketing debuted in 2013 when Apple announced iBeacon technology would be part of their iOS 7 software at the World Wide Developer Conference. Continue reading “Leveraging beacon mobile marketing technology to increase awareness and sales”

6 essential KPIs for retail marketing in the digital age

Posted on November 13, 2020 by shopkick

Key performance indicators (KPIs) are the foundation of any successful retail marketing strategy. After setting specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely goals and putting the right measurement tools in place, the marketing team charts progress based on goal forecasting and benchmark achievement over time. When thinking about which KPIs matter for you and your company, annual revenue and conversions may be the first two metrics that come to mind. However, the key KPIs for retail marketing include a mix of online and offline metrics. When analyzed together, marketers can gain an in-depth understanding of how well their omnichannel strategies are working. The data can also be used to finetune and personalize future campaigns. There is an endless amount of trackable data, but the most essential KPIs for retailers include: digital traffic, foot traffic, cart size, in-aisle engagement, overall brand awareness, and return on investment (ROI).

Digital Traffic

It’s vital to measure how many people are visiting your retail website. Traffic may fluctuate from month to month depending on the season, but should trend upward year-over-year, verifying the success and health of your site.

Knowing from which source users are visiting your site is equally important—whether from pay-per-click (PPC) ads, organic search, or social media referrals—so the company can double-down on successful strategies and discard or revamp the rest.

Consumers use multiple channels to shop, so it’s also wise to compare online vs. offline traffic to better understand how a digital presence impacts physical retail. The impact of eCommerce can be valued by breaking down traffic by zip code.

There are endless strategies for increasing web traffic, but the best produce long-term, sustainable growth. While PPC ads can give retailers a quick bump in sales and are often included in marketing mixes, far too many retailers place too much stock in this short-lived strategy. When a company stops investing in paid ads, the benefits are instantly lost. On the other hand, investing in content marketing and search engine optimization (SEO) will continue to produce growth and results over the years.

The following online tactics represent best practices for driving retail web traffic:

Advertise referral bonuses on the website and social media channels.

Produce more consistent, diverse, and optimized content.

Optimize the website with well-researched and competitive long-tail keywords.

Encourage links to the website through third-party publications, press releases, and networking.

Ensure digital directory and review sites have accurate and adequate information.

Optimize the website for mobile devices.

Partner with third-party shopping apps like Shopkick to increase the company’s footprint within new audiences.

Automate retargeting campaigns based on user behaviors like leaving items in shopping carts or browsing the site.

Physical KPIs for Retail Marketing

Though we’ve been living in “the Digital Age” since the 1970s, eCommerce will likely never replace the physical brick-and-mortar shopping experience. In fact, 90% of sales still occur in stores.

Consumers still like to physically handle products before purchasing, browse all available options, ask the advice of store personnel, and have items immediately available after purchasing. Over a third of shoppers enjoy “retail therapy” as a way of destressing, and they tend to spend more than online shoppers.

In the past, it was a bit more of a complex process to gain personalized data on physical retail shoppers. However, advancements in technology have brought about tools like smartphones, beacons, smart mirrors, smart carts, interactive screen displays, and augmented reality headsets that can be utilized to bridge gaps between data collection and physical shopping.

Foot Traffic

Foot traffic refers to the number of people who walk into the store. This metric can be measured using camera surveillance, heat maps, and retail analytics software. It’s worth measuring store traffic to gauge how many are browsing vs. buying.

Are you stocking what people need? Is a recently launched marketing campaign or a new product launch driving greater store visits? Are your window displays or geolocation-based text campaigns bringing local traffic in off the street?

There are many ways to drive foot traffic:

Increase exterior curb appeal.
Implement buy online pick up in store (BOPIS).
Hold local events.
Advertise on Google Local.
Send location-based texts.
Run flash sales during slow times.
Show real-time inventory online.
Partner with a shopping loyalty app like Shopkick that encourages and rewards shoppers for visiting a store.

Cart Size

There are many ways to drive foot traffic:

Increase exterior curb appeal.
Implement buy online pick up in store (BOPIS).
Hold local events.
Advertise on Google Local.
Send location-based texts.
Run flash sales during slow times.
Show real-time inventory online.
Partner with a shopping loyalty app like Shopkick that encourages and rewards shoppers for visiting a store.

customer engagement at the shelf retail kpis

At-Shelf Product Engagement

Forward-thinking retailers explore how consumers engage with particular products in-aisle. 3D-eye-tracking technology can gauge visual attention, heat sensor mapping can reveal popular zones, and mobile tracking can identify how people engage with particular products or aisles.

Where do shoppers go first when they arrive in-store? Are they lingering down certain aisles? Which shelves or displays capture the most sustained attention? Which items do people scan with smartphones to get more information?

To increase product engagement at-shelf:

Gamify the shopping experience.
Activate mobile barcode scanning.
Text offers using near-field communication (NFC) technology.
Hold in-store product demos.
Engage with a rewards app.
Show location-based in-app videos.
Use screens displays to provide info.
Bundle offers to drive new product trial

Shopkick is an innovative platform used to foster brand loyalty, as it rewards consumers for engagement, not just purchases. It also works across channels, whether a shopper wants to browse or buy online or in-store.

When eBay partnered with Shopkick, they were able to increase their app install rate by 6%, boost their new audience participation rate 62%, and achieve an 18% repeat-purchase rate.

Best of all, Shopkick rewards with points instead of immediate discounts, so there is no need to worry about diluting profit margins or devaluing your brand.

Brand Awareness

Brand awareness may be particularly salient if you’re launching a new product or just starting out. However, understanding if and how consumers are aware of your brand is critical to understanding which marketing strategies are successful, and which need to be improved upon.

The starting point for measuring awareness can be found in Google Analytics data, which breaks down website traffic based on source. Consumer surveys are another way to track awareness of a retail brand.

Brand awareness can be measured in a myriad of ways—website/foot traffic, branded search prevalence, the number of backlinks, overall share of market voice, social media likes/comments/mentions, and even competitive comparisons.

To increase brand awareness, retailers can:

Run native ads and social media ads.
Produce fun and informative videos.
Partner with influencers for reviews and links.
Hold offline events and cross-promotions.
Redesign company colors, logos, and brand images.
Advertise in mobile shopping apps to expand reach.

One metric to always keep in mind when analyzing a marketing program’s effectiveness is the ROI. No one wants to spend more money to advertise than what is necessary to capitalize. Campaigns with the best ROI tend to leverage partnerships, personalization strategies, and make use of digital efforts like SEO, content, email, and mobile.

Tracking KPIs for retail marketing has gotten easier with customer relationship management software and the wide plethora of digital tools at marketers’ disposal, but it can be overwhelming for retailers to know where to begin. Many companies work with third-party marketers, SEO content firms, and consultants to assess their current conditions and gain campaign traction. Partnerships are yet another way to turbocharge a retail marketing strategy and earn a significant ROI.

Shopkick offers partners actionable first-party data that can help them track key metrics (foot traffic, at-shelf engagement, demographics/psychographics, etc.) in-store in real-time. This data allows our partners to fill gaps in the consumer shopping journey and make more insightful marketing decisions. The digital age is not slowing down; now is the time for retailers to adapt to the changing retail landscape and integrate technology into their marketing strategies.