Capitalize on Mobile Apps and boost your sales this holiday season

When mobile devices are driving 45% of the internet traffic during the holidays, don’t you think you are losing out on the huge potential of mobile commerce if your enterprise doesn’t have an app to cater to this means of business?

In this blog, we show you how you can capitalize on the benefits of Mobile Apps, especially during the holiday season.

Part I – First let’s answer the question, why mobile apps?

People are always on the move and stretched for time. Their mobile devices are their constant companion because of its versatility and facility. Take a walk down a boulevard, a family restaurant, a discotheque, a park…anywhere.. and you will find legions of human specs hunched over their phones. And who can blame them? Every task is designed to be mobile and engaging, not to mention quick and stress-free.

Now, nobody likes queues and fighting over the last Gucci boots on sale at 50% off. On the other hand, the cultural turn has dictated certain holidays that aren’t Christmas or New Year, become shopping days. And such is Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Diwali, Easter and the rest of it that happen at different times of the year. So everyone is going shopping – either happily or from being obliged to – and the aforementioned queues and crowds aren’t very inviting.

So, we know that humans and mobile devices stick like Velcro. And we know that everyone is going shopping for the holiday festivals. So naturally we can infer that people are bound to shop harder on phones than in stores. One can sit in their bathtub and order their full list of shopping from turkeys to toys without ever having to step out the front door.

Your mobile app plays butler to your business. On holidays, apart from mobile devices driving that 45% of the internet traffic, it assures a rough 22.5% sales conversions from smartphones and tablets. Putting two and two together, if you don’t keep up, you are guaranteed to lose queue-waiting patrons to your competition. Mobile apps are a marketing tool that your customers actually want, as opposed to your other marketing efforts that they take efforts to block.

Part II – And now we answer, How Mobile Apps?

Prelude: holiday season premises sales and discounts

Apart from the ease, convenience and distinct ethos brought on by mobile apps, it’s the nicest way to bait customers who, incidentally, are expecting the bait.

1. Coupons – name one soul who doesn’t like gala discounts, unique coupons, and other little treats that come from scanning barcodes.
2. Enforce the loyalty program: make frequent shoppers feel special; let new customers know how to get in on this special treatment!
3. Push Notifications – it is instant unlike e-mail for which there’s spam and promotional storage reserved. You can have:

• a flash sale
• remind customers of goodies they forgot or left in their e-trolleys
• let them know if one of those goodies are on sale
• inform them of new merchandise

4. Shopping is therapy if the experience is not taxing – it’s the holidays and you want customers to be cheerful, not grumpy and carping and cursing the living day lights out of the store.
5. Excellent customer support is the one thing after an excellent product that could bring customers back. In fact, an excellent product on its own doesn’t necessarily stand.
6. It’s luxurious. It’s fast. It’s easy. It’s convenient. It’s instant.
7. Impulse shopping is restorative. Instant buys are instantly gratifying. Gratified shoppers come back for more.
8. Happy patrons = more business = more revenue = fortified brand name

Now really, need we say more?! Let those sales bowl you over! Remember that it’s a worthwhile investment.