7-11 launches bill pay app for the ‘unbanked’ in mobile push to make retail less product driven
Convenience chain 7-11 is launching an app that lets customers without a bank account come in and pay without cash as part of a wider play to switch its marketing from just pushing products to creating services that make the shopping experience easier.
The retailer sees an opportunity in the way mobile is changing how people approach banking, particularly among the underbanked. From apps to online financial services, the breadth of products flooding the market means that people are increasingly veering away from banks to third party solutions, particularly in the US where almost a third (30 per cent) of the population don’t have an account, according to the retailer.
It threw an opportunity for the business to demonstrate its efforts to be more customer-focused, a shift not just about driving footfall through stores but also how mobile can make shopping more convenient. Customers who use the app can link a 7-11 account through their computer and pay for their shopping in-store using the funds they’ve uploaded.
Laura Gordon, vice president of marketing and brand communications at 7-11, told delegates at the “What is a Brand now anyway” SxSW panel TODAY (14 March) that the service was an early example of how it would use mobile to give its customers a more personalised experience. For those time-pressed customers the mobile app already lets them locate the right store to get the product they after. The retailer is hoarding all this data to help localise its stores so that the products on sale will cater to the specific needs of different areas and neighbourhoods.
It is an approach fast food players such as McDonald’s are exploring as they embark on aggressive campaigns to win customers over through convenience.
“7-11 is working to go from being a convenience store to creating convenience moments that in turn help the brand be more relevant everyday for our customers,” said Gordon. By offering a broader and deeper level of service, the business hopes to open up more occasions for shoppers to buy from it as well as bolster loyalty to its brand.
“We’re not just about products anymore, we’re about services,” she continued. “If we can find a need and allow the customer to solve that need on their mobile device out of store and simply use our store as a way of more conveniently picking up that product or service then we’ve won a customer and we’ve created a new occasions.”
7-11’ strategy is indicative of a wider challenge retailers now face. With digital opening up so many touch points to a brand, marketers need to find ways of fashioning a seamless experience. Brands on the other side of the Atlantic such as Tesco and Asda have made major changes to the marketing function in order to spearhead what they now realise is a business issue rather than just a communications one.