CPG brands have many reasons for wanting shoppers to purchase certain items. Maybe a new product is launching, excess inventory needs to be liquidated, or perhaps they’re looking to solidify brand loyalty by directing a particular shopper to the precise product designed to meet their needs. Whatever the case, digital technology has been proven to be an effective way to increase purchase intention. Since 2013, the influence of digital technology on the in-store shopping experience has increased by 300%—from 14% to 56% of all transactions. More specifically, mobile’s influence has also grown during this timeframe, from 5% to 37%.
Aside from the influence of technology on purchases, brands must also consider why shoppers decide to make a purchase. When it comes to a shopper’s reason for purchasing, studies have looked at price, location, and personalization as variables. Surprisingly, a product’s price was determined to be the weakest driver to purchase. Personalization did little on its own as well. Rather, the unique combination of location and personalization had the most significant impact.
So, for CPG brands looking to increase purchase intention, leveraging mobile to provide location-specific, personalized marketing is the answer.
Mobile’s Role in Increasing Purchase Intention
One way to leverage mobile technology to increase purchase intention is by partnering with a third-party shopping app. By partnering with Shopkick, for example, brands can encourage shoppers to:
- Get Inspired: An app like Shopkick can be used to inspire shoppers to walk into the nearest retailer and give your brand a try. Shopkick rewards users with “kicks” for completing activities such as walking into stores, engaging with products at-shelf, and making purchases, which can then be redeemed for free gift cards. Brands can inspire shoppers who are familiar with their stores or products—as well as those who aren’t—by leveraging Shopkick’s abilities to reach a wide audience of shoppers along the path to purchase.
- Locate the Product: In one study, 67% of shoppers left a retail store because they “couldn’t find what they intended to buy.” After getting shoppers into the store, the next hurdle is helping them locate items physically on the shelves. Shopkick makes short work of this task by directing shoppers to products in the aisle, making the experience more like a fun scavenger hunt. Once you’ve built purchase intent around a particular product, be prepared for it to sell. In the same aforementioned survey, another 66.3% of shoppers left stores empty-handed because the retailer didn’t have the items they needed; so it’s a good idea to enable a feature that allows shoppers to buy online and pickup in-store.
- Research and Validate: Eighty percent of shoppers use their smartphones to browse different options and access more in-depth product information while shopping in brick-and-mortar stores. Shopkick features lookbooks, which allow users to browse products and offers while at home or away from the store.
Purchase: Retailers like Amazon are experimenting with technology that allows customers to walk into stores, pick up an item, leave with that item, and then have it automatically billed to their account. Other stores are trying self-service mobile scanning checkout systems to remove barriers like long checkout lines or slow customer service. Shopkick’s mobile commerce platform is similar, in a sense, as it allows users to make online purchases through the app instead of having to exit and log onto a participating store’s website. - Reconsider: Shopkick also works as a loyalty program that encourages shoppers to reconsider brands they’ve purchased from in the past. CPG brands can use this opportunity to reward repeat customers for their continued loyalty.
Purchase: Increase Purchase Intention With Shopkick
When a peanut butter and jelly brand wanted to boost sales of its products during the busy back-to-school season, they partnered with Shopkick. The company wanted to build brand awareness and consideration amongst an incremental audience, and inspire consumers to add these lunchtime favorites to their shopping carts. Shopkick helped the brand drive product engagement and sales by interacting with users at every touchpoint of their shopping trip—at home, in-aisle, and through checkout.
Shopkick built pre-shop consideration and increased purchase intention with fun branded in-app content to boost awareness and engage consumers at home. In-store, shoppers were incentivized to seek out, interact with, and purchase the featured products.
- The Results: The campaign successfully drove incremental purchases as 31% of purchasers were not initially planning to buy the product before their visit to the store. Nineteen percent of shoppers who scanned the product then went on to purchase, resulting in a strong ROI of 2.6:1.
CPG brands can leverage mobile technology to increase purchase intention and offer customers a convenient, curated, and integrated shopping experience.
CPG brands can leverage mobile technology to increase purchase intention and offer customers a convenient, curated, and integrated shopping experience. By partnering with Shopkick, brands gain access to a robust customer base who are ready to buy, they just need to know where to look.
Shopkick helps brands offer customers incentives in retail through our innovative shopping app. Contact us to learn more about how our partners use third party retail rewards app to increase purchase intention.
Image courtesy of Stokkete
