Consumers and their shopping behavior have changed dramatically in the last decade. With the rise of readily available, high-speed internet, the shopping mediums of choice have evolved to online with a great percentage via mobile phone. Marketing tools had to evolve too in order to keep up with the consumers and in the age of the internet, targeted marketing has become very advanced.
Long gone are the days when people would open the print ads mailed to their homes. Junk mail, as it has come to be known, goes straight into the trash. The Millennial generation is especially known for avoiding unsolicited ads as much as possible. Streaming their video entertainment, forgoing cable TV and all the commercials that come with it. Even radio has suffered as millennials prefer to listen to ad free music apps, podcasts and other commercial free music services. Traditional targeted marketing has become less effective as technology advanced and tech savvy consumers have become the majority.
Targeted marketing has evolved substantially with the technological advancements and the new capabilities that the internet can provide. Systems can collect and sort through massive amounts of data in real-time to give retailers better ways to target their shoppers and convert opportunities into sales. Advanced targeted marketing offers new methods to connect with shoppers utilizing new technologies and specific information.
One of these methods, re-targeted marketing, allows a seller to recover some of their lost opportunities by following a consumer that abandoned the shopping cart without completing the purchase and offering discounts, coupons or other incentives through an automated system in order to motivate the consumer to complete the purchase.
Advanced targeted marketing tools can engage the consumer in the physical environment through their hand-held device. Location based notifications can be triggered when consumers enter a predefined geographic area (Geo-Fencing), or as they walk by a beacon. These notifications are more likely to convert as their strategic configuration can enable the seller to engage the consumer at the time when they are in the mood for shopping.
As powerful as they are, none of these advanced marketing tools would be very useful without actionable insight into consumer behavior and preferences. Having data collected from online shopping behavior is what enables the seller to target the right audience with the offer that is the most likely to result in a sale and repeat business.
Technology is going to keep advancing, and consumers are going to keep changing. Augmented Reality, Artificial Intelligence, IoT and other advanced technologies have already started to make their way into the retail industry. If you would like to know more about the latest retail technologies and how they can be applied to increase your revenue and lower your costs, please contact us for a free consultation.