Mobile phones have a powerful role in the in-store shopping experience, said an industry expert, highlighting the biggest takeaways that will give retailers in UAE an insight into what they need to do to attract and retain customers.

1.    Retail mobile apps can be addictive

Many of us have been incentivized with special promotional offerings to download retailers’ mobile apps, but how many people have actually downloaded them, and do they use these apps regularly? We discovered a staggering 83 per cent of respondents use a retail mobile app, and 26 per cent use them up to five times per week. One in 10 shoppers use retail mobile apps more than 10 times a week, said Manish Bhardwaj, a senior marketing manager, Middle East and Turkey at Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company.


2.    Move over sales associate. Hello trusty mobile phone

Do you find sales associates uninformed about products or sometimes too aggressive to make a sale? Many respondents of this survey have the same feeling, too. When asked about how they would prefer to peruse products in a store, 38 per cent of respondents would rather pass up human interaction with a sales associate and turn to their mobile phones to continue their shopping experience.

3.    Retail loyalty apps keep customers coming back

When respondents were presented with the option of shopping at a nearby competitor’s store versus a similar store where they are a loyalty member, less than nine percent would actually go with the competitive store. While 10 per cent admitted to being indifferent to the option, a whopping 50 per cent would select the store they were a loyalty member over other options.

4.    In-store navigation gets top billing

Gone are the days of static mobile content. A retail mobile app should not be built just for basic catalogue purposes or to give store information. Consumers want to be engaged by the retailer and that’s being accomplished through real-time, location-based information. “As part of this study we discovered that in-store maps and indoor navigation is considered a top incentive for downloading retail mobile apps, making real-time location to products a key selling point for both the shopper and the store,” said Bhardwaj.

5.    In-store incentives yield a high conversion rate
One of the main drivers for retailers to create mobile apps is to encourage their customers to purchase more with special in-store incentives. But do these incentive really yield results? Do shoppers actually take stores up on their offer? According to a study by Aruba, they do. A hefty 63 per cent said they are likely to take advantage of an in-store offer if it’s presented to them.

6.    For shoppers, Wi-Fi is king

Mobile data coverage is ubiquitous in most populated areas. However, once inside the walls of large stores, the coverage can quickly degrade and bandwidth becomes unpredictable. Given the fact that the modern shopper is tethered to their mobile phone to facilitate in-store purchases, providing easy-to-access Wi-Fi is key for retailers. In fact, when respondents were asked what they used their mobile phones for most inside stores, connecting to in-store Wi-Fi came in number one.

During the National Retail Federation (NRF) Retail’s BIG Show 2016, the largest retail show of the year, wireless network provider Aruba took the opportunity to collect new data on the impact of shoppers’ mobile phone and retail mobile app usage on brick-and-mortar stores.

During the course of the multi-day study, Aruba surveyed 500+ global consumers including those from UAE in order to determine how mobile usage has impacted shopping in traditional stores. – TradeArabia News Service