- July 9, 2014
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Target Doubles Down on Mobile Apps
Target Corp. is doubling down its mobile app business to drive sales back into its brick-and-mortar locations.
The upscale-discounter is pushing forward with a new branded mobile app to allow users to build shopping lists that would allow customers to find everything within its brick-and-mortar locations. With nearly two-thirds of Target’s online traffic coming through a mobile device, it’s a safe bet for a retailer showing sluggish sales and the backlash from one of the largest data breaches in retail history last year.
The new app will integrate the retailer’s current mobile coupon-clipping app, Cartwheel. Target spent a year developing Cartwheel, with partners such as Facebook. The company has been regularly updating the app, adding a “Friends” tab that shows how a user’s savings stack up against Facebook friends. The retailer also made the barcode and the scan-to-search feature more prominent and easier to use.
The app has generated a lot of sales with the amount of time shoppers spent browsing and shopping Target via mobile devices rose 251 percent in March to nearly 100,000,000 hours compared to a year earlier, according to comScore Inc.
For brands, apps like Target’s Cartwheel represent the primary vehicle to directly reach out to and engage with consumers. A study by Indiana University found that consumers who interacted with a branded mobile app became more favorable to the brand and were almost 2 percent more likely to buy its products afterward. Smart brands are already using smartphones and tablets to reach out to consumers, but it takes something different to make them regular users of the app.
Many leading major brands, including Audi, Zippo, Orange and Cadbury, are using branded mobile apps as a way to reach their target audience. It’s not hard to see why when more than 3 billion apps have been downloaded, and mobile users are generally young and affluent. If you’re considering adding this tactic to your integrated marketing strategy, consider these pointers:
- A branded mobile app is a combination of product and entertainment.
- Most importantly, it cannot be perceived as advertising.
- When done right, it’s a great way to not only increase brand awareness but also drive direct traffic to the website or store.
To promote its apps, Target launched it’s first-ever ad campaign for the mobile apps. The retailer is heavily marketing its new features to young couples and families. The idea would be to order everything online and pick it up the same day at your local Target. It’s a value proposition Amazon.com isn’t able to compete with even with its Prime Two-Day Shipping.
Target knows it’s behind when it comes to its online shopping experience. Until 2011, the retailer didn’t even run Target.com itself — Amazon did.
The retailer plans to integrate the mobile experience across the entirely of its retail operations. Plans also include overhauling its wedding and baby registry business, implementing integrated shopping lists with live store maps, and tests of same-day delivery for some online orders. Among some of the changes in-store, Target will replace all in-store registry kiosks, primarily used for weddings and baby showers, with iPads connected to Target.com. Old-school scanning guns will be replaced with iPod touches.
These days, branded apps are not just for big corporations with money to burn. They are well within the reach of every small business. For a budget-friendly approach to building a mobile app, consider our perspective: “How to Make Your Own Mobile App Without Getting Techy.”
