This week our Day in the Life feature focuses on Ken Parnham, who is the General Manager at location intelligence platform, Near.
Let’s find out what his role entails, as well as what it is like to work in such a nascent part of the industry.
The decline in the British pound since the Brexit referendum has made UK goods and services more affordable to customers in other countries.
This has resulted in a surge of international shoppers browsing UK retail websites.
So how can retailers capitalise?
From the moment we wake until we hit the pillow for some post-Netflix shut-eye, our smartphones are within reach.
From gaming or reading on the commute, to ordering the weekly shop or tonight’s Deliveroo dinner, we (i.e. consumers) rely on our mobiles to provide relevant content and services exactly when we need them.
You will have noticed a steady stream of 2014 roundup posts on the blog recently and it’s now time for another.
This time I’ve asked several mobile experts for their opinions on what have been the most impressive campaigns in the past 12 months.
It follows on from a similar post looking at the biggest mobile trends from 2014.
Mobile seems to have been one of the most important trends in digital marketing and ecommerce for the past five years now.
The technology evolves and improves every year bringing with it new challenges and opportunities for brands.
Store locator tools are hugely important for multichannel retailers, with their importance increasing due to the consumer shift to mobile and our reliance on digital maps for directions.
This was a point hammered home to me over the weekend when I was hopelessly wandering the streets of Catford trying to find a Tesco Superstore.
Store locator tools seem a very basic part of modern web design, yet clearly not all sites manage to get it right.
The importance of giving people useful, local information is further underlined by data published by Google.
It shows that 40% of mobile searches have local intent, while three out of four mobile searches trigger follow-up actions, whether that be further research, a store visit, a phone call, a purchase or word-of-mouth sharing.
With this in mind I’ve taken a look to see which brands have great mobile store locator tools, but first here’s a look at a few features that need to be included.
Apple’s iBeacons are becoming increasingly popular among retailers and event organisers, with numerous trials rolled over the past 12 months.
And now Mothercare is likely to become the latest brand to adopt the technology, though trials won’t begin until the New Year.
At Demandware’s Xchange ’14 Summit Harpinder Singh, Mothercare’s senior omnichannel development manager, discussed the brand’s current mobile platforms and what it plans for the near future.
The company operates a separate mobile site, plus apps on iPhone, iPad and Android.
But as Mothercare continues its move to becoming a multichannel business there is less focus on mobile as a sales channel and a greater appreciation of its role in the overall customer experience.
To give an insight into what this means in practice, here’s what Singh had to say on how Mothercare is approaching some of mobile’s biggest challenges…
I’ve rounded up what I think are the most intriguing examples of geofencing.
The list includes retailers but also other sectors such as leisure and education.
Take a look, because this is an area that almost any company could surely find a compelling use case for.
2014 is another exciting year for mobile.
With many new technologies coming to market, emotional investment in our devices along with usage is at an all time high.
This is the definitive A to Z guide to mobile marketing and commerce. Enjoy…
Mobile marketing is still a developing industry and one that does suffer something of an image problem.
Taken purely in terms of clickthroughs and conversions mobile ads don’t always deliver the best returns, so it’s up to the mobile networks to continue improving ad units while also convincing marketers that it’s not all about clicks.
To assist in this endeavour, I’ve rounded up eight case studies of mobile marketing campaigns that proved to be a success.
For more in-depth case studies, head over to our Case Study Database which is available to Econsultancy subscribers.
And for more on this topic download the Econsultancy Mobile Marketing and Commerce Report or read my post looking at eight great examples of mobile marketing from Southeast Asia.
As technology has advanced, so has the online marketer’s ability to shape website utility and brand perceptions.
Product recommendation engines were the first real move away from a one size fits-all website, but it wasn’t until the introduction of A/B testing that ecommerce professionals started to look at personalisation as more than just algorithmic product curation.
Ecommerce is graduating into a new phase of personalisation where customer segmentation capabilities and the ability to serve targeted content in real-time are a viable reality for most online businesses.
The bricks-and-mortar store is no longer the only place the customer can see the personal face of the business as personalisation bridges the gap between the clicks and the bricks.
This guide aims to identify some effective personalisation tactics that ecommerce businesses can implement to improve the customer experience and drive conversions.
Mobile penetration varies hugely among APAC nations, however in developed countries such as Hong Kong and Singapore more than three-quarters of the population own a smartphone.
In response to this consumer trend APAC marketers have to place greater emphasis on mobile, which has resulted in some extremely creative campaigns.
Having previously investigated stats on m-commerce from the region, here are eight excellent examples of mobile marketing campaigns from APAC.