The news pouring out of the Mobile World Congress shows (cynicism aside given the nature of the event and suppliers talking the talk) that the growth in mobile has finally evolved to become a true force to be reckoned.
It even earned itself the hashtag #mobiledarwinism this week.
Despite this buzz around mobile, research shows mobile is far from reaching its full potential when it comes to certain major sectors, specifically shopping for food and grocery (which is the largest and arguably the important retail market).
While smartphone penetration now stands at 81%, only one-third of online grocery shoppers in the UK use a mobile to do their food shop.
This is changing rapidly however – a year ago only 26% of online grocery shoppers were using mobile – so there is already momentum and improving apps and changing shopping habits are set to ensure this growth continues.
Growth and progress is important because, as seen in other areas of retail, mobile has profound implications on the shopper journey. So when planning the path-to-purchase, brands increasingly need to consider the potential of above-the-line communications and even product packaging as a purchase trigger – given that marketing comms can now be converted to a sale at any time and in any place.
The change is already in motion and is set to accelerate as generation Y continues to emerge as the dominant shopper base. Their shopper journey is defined on their terms, they seek absolute relevance and, increasingly from a digital perspective, they have the ability to shut brands out.
The point is that shoppers are changing and technology is enabling that change. What is holding back progress in grocery particularly are the ways of working and structures that have become deep rooted across many retailers and brand owners.
So that leads us to ask: is it sustainable for brands to differentiate between the physical and virtual worlds, or between ‘above the line’ and ‘below the line’, when increasingly shoppers don’t acknowledge these differences in the ways that they behave during their daily lives?
Marketing strategies need to be built on the principles of this changing shopper behaviour and considering the whole shopper journey irrespective of channel, is fast becoming a necessity. More fundamentally though, digital marketing strategies must serve shoppers in the way shoppers want to be served. The old cliché that the customer is king has never been so true.
By Alastair Lockhart, insight director at Savvy