Friday, December 02, 2011 7:58:00 AM
Smart phones give customers the power of the internet at their fingertips, with competition prices one click away. According to a recent Deloitte study, this holiday season 59 percent of smartphone owners plan to use their devices for holiday shopping to compare product price. Consumers can scan bar codes to get additional information about a product as well as to check who is selling it more cheaply. It is too late to get your app on for this holiday season, but retailers have to come to grips with price transparency and focus on ways to add value in store in order to secure sales.
It is important for retailers to take comparison shopping apps seriously and educate themselves to the knowledge that consumers are armed with. Where as in the past, retailers had the benefit of limited information for the consumer playing in their favor, especially once a consumer was in their store, now consumers have easy access to prices, that are not limited by geographic location. Mobile price comparison is a growing challenge for retailers who have different geographic pricing within their brand, or different pricing between their online and store channels.
It is too late this season to change mobile and digital retail strategies and if consumers are driven solely by price, comparison shopping apps pose a true threat to losing the sale. This holiday season price-sensitive consumers and increasingly connected consumers will look to maximize their dollar. So retailers need to proactively offer an in store shopping experience that supersedes what they might be able to find online. However, retailers can still compete with mobile by providing a superior value add for the consumer versus their online counterparts. New in store technologies like mobile self-checkout and tablet-wielding store clerks can also help combat the threat that mobile comparison shopping poses. as well as flash sales, superior store service, or simply giving the consumer the security of leaving the store with their special gift in hand.
Final thought: It is never too early to start thinking about mobile apps or a social digital strategy in 2012. The cost of mobile optimization and application development is rapidly decreasing and their is no time like the present to ensure being a step ahead of the competition.