How to direct buyers to your offline store using mobile advertising

We probably all imagined a future where physical, material business remained in the past. Street shops and shops are abandoned. The web hangs on shelves and counters. Weeds grow from a cracked floor. And then it's all for demolition. Everything will fall before the unstoppable power of Progress. In this vision, technology makes traditional business a worthless, bygone era. Consumers of the future will ask: “Why go to the store when all this can be easily bought online?”

A mixture of mobile and real worlds.

We can already see how this is happening today. Almost every conceivable action can be done online. E-commerce is growing, fueled by increasing and sophisticated digital advertising.

The entire Internet, which is almost 1 billion active websites, now lives in our pockets.

But is it? Is it really only a matter of time, the moment when the shops on our street will become an echo of our bygone past in anticipation of demolition?

Not certainly in that way.

Retail is still important

Assuming that expanding and increasingly sophisticated digital advertising, especially mobile, will turn Consumers away from offline stores, this is the easiest thing to do. But from this the assumption does not become true.

E-commerce has been growing for many years, but offline stores still carry out 93% of all sales (data from the 1st quarter of 2015).

While the majority of the purchase process can actually begin online, in the end, its completion occurs at the counter of a real store.

So, let's not think of mobile advertising as a force that turns consumers away from offline stores, as it might seem in a utopian future, “captured” by electronic commerce.

Instead, let's consider mobile advertising as what it really is: a tool that can deliver your message, whatever it may be, to as many targeted recipients as possible, wherever they are.

In some cases, this is an advertising message that can actually lead to your website, online store. But in others, it can also lead directly to your real store or office. And, in fact, there is no tool and form of advertising that would be better suited for this than mobile advertising.

Referral of mobile consumers to your retail store

Let's introduce our average, modern customer. He has an idea in his head, an idea about the product that he wants to buy. But in the beginning he needs to do research. And, at present, it is already possible to guarantee that he will carry out such a research of the market and product characteristics online, collecting information from different sites, comparing brands, looking for feedback from previous customers.

And, also, now there is a very big chance that he carries out his research from a mobile device. The share of smartphone owners in Russia is 66%, and they use them at least an hour a day. The percentage of mobile Internet traffic is also constantly growing. According to Adobe's CMO.com survey, 84% of buyers in 2014the offline store used their mobile devices before or while they were visiting the store.

And if this is true, there are great opportunities for brands to bring Consumers directly to their offline store using mobile advertising.

It makes sense.

The modern consumer is constantly on the move. He is either on the way to work, or vice versa, meetings, dinners, cultural trips with children, he simply does not have time to sit at the desktop and study the characteristics of the product and price. He needs information about the product immediately, while he is in daily worries, and not when he wants to relax in the evening after work.

For this, our consumer uses his smartphone to get the information he is interested in, so as not to interrupt his daily activity and use the brief moments of free time to good use.

Your advertisement, your message

But if he is already conducting his research from the phone, why should he not just buy the goods he is interested in in the online store?

It really depends on what you want him to do. Your ad can control and direct it.

Don't have an online store? Do not worry. Send it using your mobile advertising to your offline store.

And if you are truly a creative person, you can even make an offline purchase using the specific mobile functionality, not only possible, but also more convenient and attractive.

• mobile ads can use your potential customer’s location data via GPS to direct them to your nearest store.
• she can provide information about a particular store product that you have available and which is being sold.
• she can also offer coupon discounts and gifts that your consumer can use in the store by activating them through her mobile device.

If he is already researching your product on his smartphone, the likelihood that he will look for the nearest store to him is very high. In addition, if he already uses a mobile phone, this probably means that he is already on his way to you.

So take advantage and provide him with the information he is looking for.

In addition, just as some people may like the convenience of buying goods online, there are a lot of those who just need to go to the store and see the products that they are interested in, live. In this case, the goods are real, they can be felt, tried on, and you do not have to wait an indefinite amount of time until the transaction passes, the order will be processed and the goods will be packed and delivered.

The essence of mobile advertising is the creative and efficient delivery of your advertising message to consumers. And where this message will send them, ultimately, will depend only on you! BYYD • Mobile Advertising Platform