Unwrapping mobile micro-moments: Making the most of the festive season
Christmas is by far the biggest event in the retail calendar. So, with online sales exceeding £22bn over the holiday last year, it's hardly a surprise that marketers have been planning since the end of last year’s festivities – if not since last Christmas. The holiday build-up, the Christmas Eve rush, the Boxing Day sales have long been key points in any retailer's calendar with billions being spent year-on-year by brands.
The arrival of new festive retail phenomena such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday are increasingly extending the traditional Christmas spending period.
The Black Friday bonanza helped online retail sales surpass £1bn in one day for the first time last week, and now brands need to think carefully about other opportunities they can tap into across the Christmas customer journey.
It isn't just Black Friday and Cyber Monday when consumers are looking to buy gifts for Christmas. Figures now show that consumers are beginning searches for 'Christmas' as early in the year as September.
These are part of consumer micro-moments, hundreds of real-time, insight-driven points in the consumer purchase journey, which offer savvy brands more opportunities than ever before to capture consumer attention and shape purchasing decisions.
In 2014, retail sites on Black Friday drew in 59 per cent of all online traffic in the UK with consumer searches on the day tripling those of Boxing Day. British Retail Consortium figures released this week show that Black Friday was led, not by deals on the high street, but those online.
Go back a year or two from today and the streets of central London were swarmed with discount shoppers. This year however consumers, and major brands, appeared to avoid the madness and have been online for savings, rather than braving the high street. Given this, it will be more important than ever for brands looking to make the most of micro-moments to look at their digital platforms; most importantly, mobile.
Last year sales via smartphones and tablets grew by 55 per cent, accounting for 37 per cent of all online sales made in the UK, and this year is set to be no exception. It's no coincidence then that US retail giant Target now reports that a third of mobiles search ad clicks lead to an in-store visit. This offers greater opportunities to generate product awareness and drive real-world footfall, as well as online sales.
Increasingly, UK brands and marketers are starting to see the value of mobile as more than just another sales platform and are embracing it as a doorway between the consumer and the brand. Mobile devices offer brands a constant touch-point with consumers, which are literally with them wherever they go, giving marketers access to a wealth of previously inaccessible, real-time data.
The wealth of new data combined with these emerging micro-moments offers brands the insight to plan and execute digital marketing campaigns in real-time like never before. Factoring in hundreds of unique insights from target audiences every minute, digital ads can not only be better targeted specifically at those customers who are most likely to be interested, but also when and where they are most likely to make purchases.
However, for brands looking to truly capitalise on this, mobile can no longer simply be an afterthought. Being mobile-ready doesn't start and end with the complexities of being able to extract, refine and utilise consumer data to target ads. The ability to target your prefect audience to generate awareness, drive link clicks and save on wasted ad spend is all well and good.
Consumers do not necessarily differentiate interactions with a brand between their desktop, mobile or the physical world. The challenge for brands moving forward is not just understanding how the consumer moves between the online and offline space, but to measure the impact their mobile activity has on store footfall and in-store behaviour.
The advertiser needs to capture store data to maximise the potential of their customer’s real-world interactions and drive further engagement in the digital space. Technological advancements are offering ever increasing data opportunities through CRM, iBeacons, wearable, contactless payment. These will allow advertisers to augment their data targeting capabilities and leverage strong intent indicators.
Mobile is unique in offering the potential to track a consumer across many media touch-points and the only communication channels truly able to reach the consumer at the most relevant time and place. Brands that get it right can win the battle for the Christmas shopper’s pocket money
Many notable brands including Currys, Tesco, Argos, PC World and Boots all suffered during last year's festivities due to poor web platform capabilities, which simply weren't able to cope with the increased traffic. This year, it will be mobile which will test a retailer's resolve to compete in these increasingly established shopping phenomena. Something we've already begun to see.
In today's constantly connected retail landscape, brands need to be looking to mobile not as a mere extension of its website but as a separate entity in its own right. A living, breathing system which is mostly likely going to be the first port-of-call consumers, and which needs to be carefully planned for, prepared and maintained throughout the year.
Looking forward to Christmas, and beyond, it will be brands that can deliver a seamless, value-add and mobile-focused retail experience which will truly be able to make the most of the festive season.
Ben Sutherland is chief performance officer at iProspect UK