GPShopper's Blog

Every holiday season, GPShopper account managers start putting retail strategies in place with our clients as they enter what is arguably the most important time of year for revenue, engagement, and customer satisfaction & acquisition. 

In October, our recommendation is to shift mobile app messaging to drive app downloads. Retailers want as many app users as possible when heading into Black Friday weekend next month, because a mobile app is the perfect bridge between online and in-store browsers. With a mobile commerce app, engaging customers in-store and harvesting brand loyalty by way of personalization are both easy and essential.  

One of the best ways to drive app downloads during and leading up to the holidays is offering Wish Lists and Shopping Lists in-app. 

Excerpt from Mobile Commerce Daily article
Written by Chantal Tode

Cosmetics and salon chain Ulta Beauty is one of the first retailers to take advantage of Spotlight search for its iPhone application, enabling users to easily find recently viewed items by swiping on the screen.

With iOS 9, Spotlight search enables developers to surface content within apps already on a user’s phone as well as content on the Web that can be accessed by swiping on their screen. As retailers continue to explore ways to streamline navigation and discovery on a phone’s small screen, Ulta Beauty’s adoption Spotlight search points to a path that, so far, has not been widely adopted.

“Spotlight Search for retail is still very much in its infancy and hasn’t yet been implemented by many retailers,” said Wes Chiang, sales director at GPShopper.

“The fact that Ulta is trying this is a positive step because it requires relatively low effort for potentially high impact, which will pay off in the long term,” he said. “As with any mobile functionality, the more places your brand can be seen; the better.”

GPShopper research reveals mobile’s impact on the changing nature of where consumers get their fashion inspiration 

GPShopper, the leading mobile commerce and engagement platform for retailers and brands that want to create custom app experiences for their customers, found that 60 percent of Americans have never heard of “The September Issue.” Instead consumers are spending an average of six hours a week looking for fashion inspiration on their mobile phones. As customers look beyond traditional outlets such as print magazines for their fashion fix, retail brands need to expand their digital footprint to capture a shopper’s attention via mobile apps and influence the path to purchase. 

The study, conducted with third party research firm YouGov, revealed not only the changing nature of where consumers are looking for fashion inspiration, but what steps they take to further engage with a brand or make a purchase once they are inspired.   

Print is so five years ago. Friends and family are forever.

In just five years, print magazines have fallen approximately 50 percent when it comes to being the main source of fashion inspiration for Americans.

• In 2011, more than a quarter of Americans (27%) said print magazines were their main source of fashion inspiration, compared to just 13 percent today
• Just six percent of millennials listed print magazines as their main source of fashion inspiration
• Millennials are getting their main fashion inspiration from friends and family and Facebook

As we stated in our last beauty blog post, 45 percent of beauty consumers use their mobile in-store, choosing to consult their device over a sales associate. Now, let's dive a little deeper into that stat and uncover how female shoppers are actually using their mobile in-store.

According to a report by eMarketer, 79% of US female beauty buyers used their mobile in-store to browse user reviews of products. Additionally, 76% of women use mobile apps for browsing merchandise while 24% use apps for purchasing, according to Fluent.

We know that female consumers aren't the only ones using their device in-store while for shopping needs, but it's important to also understand the distinction and needs of female beauty shoppers. The eMarketer report was able to breakdown the path to purchase of these users:

Last week, Demandware's popular Mobile Shopping Focus Report made a significant splash in retail news, with well respected publications like Bloomberg Technology agreeing that consumers are moving from 'mobile first' to 'mobile only'. The report gathered insight from over 400 million shoppers and found that smartphones are overtaking computers as a top e-commerce traffic source, more baskets are being created on phones, and that mobile shopping behavior is upending traditional performance metrics. 

• Mobile conversion has risen dramatically, up 70% since 2013
• 60% of traffic to e-commerce sites will come from phones by the end of 2017
• 38% of baskets are created on phones - by the end of 2016, shoppers will create more baskets on phones than on computers or tables
• AOV's for app buyers is 50% higher than using the mobile site alone