Dwell time was a concept I first came across years ago as a web analytics measure designed to provide ecommerce marketers with insight into how long a visitor took to either make a buy decision or abandon the site for another. It seems the same is happening around mobile enabled consumers as they browse retail stores, introducing new challenges for marketers.
Although it doesn’t say so, this post yesterday on eMarketer.com suggests that providing incentives designed to keep your mobile savvy customers in store is closely tied to ensuring they don’t bail and visit another store for a better deal:
“The threat comes from in-store shoppers using their phones to check sales prices at other retailers. Compete found that 41% of iPhone users and 43% of Android users do just that.”
“You could argue that every retailer on the planet is an off-balance-sheet showroom for Amazon. So if you go into a retailer’s store and you see something you like—type in that manufacturer’s SKU number and check the price on Amazon. You’ve looked at it, you’ve touched it, felt it, and now you’re getting the benefit of potentially getting the best price on it too.”
To meet this challenge, the post recommends “A retailer’s best defense for maintaining customer loyalty is to develop a mobile offering that allows in-store shoppers access to customer reviews and other product information on its Website. This is where the opportunity lies for retailers. By providing mobile access to their extensive online product information, they help customers feel more comfortable about making a purchase.”
This is a logical recommendation, yet it will not prevent price sensitive, mobile enabled customers from comparison shopping and potentially leaving the store. It also ignores reseach suggesting that loyalty not be the target, but rather engagement.
To keep customers in-store and increase the probability of purchase, retailers should build engagement strategies into their mobile plans such as text message promotions like sweepstakes and other contests.
Consumers value their time as much as their money, which is why many are excited at the prospect of instantly performing a price comparison quickly then moving onto another store. Retailers who create engaging mobile programs that keep customers in-store such as promotions lessen the likelihood that they will take the time to visit another store.
