Smartphone and social media are an inseparable part of our lives nowadays, creating new consumer touch points for retailers. A report from BI Intelligence has uncovered five must-know mobile and social marketing trends.
1. Smartphones are already the leading consumer touch point for retailers
Interaction with retailers on smartphones increased 98% between 2013 and 2015. On tablets it increased 55% during the same period, and on desktop increased just 38%.
2. Expect an uptick in shopping app usage
Forty four percent of e-commerce time spent occurs in mobile apps. The new category of “Shopping” launched last year has hugely benefited the brands that are looking to boost mobile apps engagement, as searching the App Store is the No. 1 way users discover new apps, according to comScore.
3. Beacons are finally going mainstream
Beacons are small, wireless devices that allow brands and retailers to push mobile coupons and promotions to shoppers’ smartphones based on their physical locations. The rise of mobile shopping apps has served as a proxy for proximity-based marketing systems such as beacons.
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In terms of types of retailers that are benefiting from beacon, those selling consumer packaged goods (CPGs) are getting the biggest lift as they are bought frequently and regularly, expecting the highest engagement with beacons for shoppers are always looking to save on these oft-purchased items.
4. Facebook is driving social commerce actions
Thirty percent of purchase conversions from Facebook ads between January 2015 and May 2015 took place on a mobile device, a 35% increase in purchase through this channel over the previous quarter on Facebook’s standard mobile app.
5. Mainstream media and celebrities are making affiliate marketing popular again
Major retailers and publishers are coming together to use performance-based marketing to drive sales of all sorts of products – from electronics to apparel. The growth in affiliate marketing is driven largely by two factors.
Firstly, mainstream media publishers are taking on a larger role in affiliate marketing, as they look for supplementary sources of income to hedge against the sometimes volatile digital ad pricing model. Secondly, earned media, a type of influencer marketing, is growing via social networks.
To read the full report on Business Insider Intelligence, click here.
(Source: BI Intelligence)