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.

Timeliness.

Timely content keeps your brand top of mind. The fact that mobile devices are always on and available allows for greater timeliness than any other channel. Most SMS messages can be read at a glance, which appeals to the eight-second attention span people have today. Thankfully, the response time for SMS messages is equally quick—just 90 seconds—compared to the 90-minute response time for email.

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.”

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?

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.

Product Awareness

To drive consideration and trial, Shopkick sends users on an in-store treasure hunt for promoted products to find when they enter the store.

This helps cut through the clutter of the immense competition partnering brands and retailers are facing in-store, and also encourages shoppers to physically engage with the product now that it’s directly in front of them.

At-Shelf Engagement

Once Shopkickers find each promotional item, they scan its barcode to earn “kicks” (reward points).

Bonus kicks are received if they purchase the product and upload their receipt.

Scanning items’ barcodes provides shoppers with additional product information, trigger informative videos, and more.

Rewards

Once they’ve accumulated enough kicks, Shopkickers can redeem them for gift cards of their choosing.

Often, Shopkickers choose the retailer where they earned their kicks from as their preferred gift card, providing an incremental revenue stream for retail partners.

Regardless of where Shopkickers choose to redeem their kicks, you will have created a memorable experience that will foster a positive customer relationship and create long-term loyalty.

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).

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!).