With over $200 billion in annual buying power, millennials are an important group to cater to. In response, retailers and restaurants have looked for opportunities to capitalize on millennial habits and interests.
One of those interests is mobile technology. In this day and age, having a smart phone is a necessity for the millennial generation more than anything else. An article on Nielsen states that over 85% of millennials own smartphones. You could say that they are dependent on their quick access to the internet—almost as if it was part of them. It’s also one of the biggest means for them to shop online.
Merchant Warehouse did a survey with one million millennials and found out that customer loyalty has gone mobile. Consumers said that they’d most likely visit a website or go to a store if that brand offered coupons, discounts or a loyalty/reward program for becoming a member with them.
Add the fact that mobile devices allow millennials to check their emails or store apps on the go, and retail stores know that their promotional messages, such as a discount or a special deal, will be seen sooner than sitting in the inbox on a desktop or laptop back home.
The State of Mobile Retail
With the advancement in mobile technology, apps for brick and mortar retails stores like Best Buy or GameStop have been striving to keep up. Even online stores like Amazon have an app for their customers to use—and it doesn’t just stop with retail. Restaurants like Jimmy John’s, Which Wich, and Pizza Hut have gotten a good grasp of this era of mobile devices and have made it easier to find one of their outlets closest to the mobile app user to visit or order food for delivery. The number of mobile users will only continue to grow as the years go by.
Mobile’s Role in Omnichannel Retail
Although online shopping has grown in the last decade, that doesn’t mean brick and mortar is on its last legs. With the internet going mobile, customers can look for products that they want to purchase and—instead of paying extra to have it the next day or wait a week or two—they can decide to reserve it at a store nearest them and go pick it up after school or work. That said, customers can also do some research on the product they are looking for, look over the description of the product, read the reviews for it and the store that he or she might be considering to visit, and compare its price to that of other retail stores in the area.
What Buxton Can Do:
Here at Buxton, we can find those customers that fit the millennial profile. We can find how much they spend online and at brick and mortar stores, where they live, how far they’re willing to travel, and the value of your millennial customer, so you know the ones that would spend the most at your store. Let us help you grow your millennial customer base.
