The exciting second part of a guest contribution series for Omni Talk from Michelle Skupin, Senior Director of Marketing & Communications at RetailMeNot and derived from RetailMeNot’s full2019 Retailer Playbook.
Shoppers have always loved getting great deals that save them money. But today, thanks to technology, they’re more savvy than ever about hunting down the best offers and discounts. To succeed in 2019, retailers must understand where consumers are going to discover deals and how they can best reach them.
That’s one of the most important takeaways from RetailMeNot’s 2019 Retailer Playbook, which analyzes survey results from 200 senior retail marketers and more than 5,000 consumers. In part two of our series, these insights shed light on how shoppers seek deals and how retailers are responding to their preferences.
Discounts Via Mobile Are a Top Priority
Today’s consumers are experts at using their mobile devices to save money, whether they are shopping online or in brick-and-mortar stores. When they’re in a physical retail location, 74 percent of Americans are searching on their mobile devices. About two-thirds of those searchers are looking for prices of the items they plan to buy, either at the store where they are (54 percent) or at a different store nearby (45 percent). And, even more so, 63 percent of mobile device searchers are looking for deals.
Retailers are investing their marketing dollars in alignment with consumers’ habits. Mobile is the No. 1 category where retailers plan to increase their marketing investment in 2019, with 88 percent planning to spend more. Social media is also on the top of minds for many retailers given their high association with mobile browsing. The number of retailers boosting their spending in other areas is down sharply from two years ago — including across non-mobile digital and offline spending.
Brands and retailers can utilize their mobile channels to reach shoppers in the moments that matter and on the platforms where shoppers are already diverting their attention. Without being interruptive to the mobile user, retail marketers have the opportunity to boost brand awareness and drive sales with relevant content across all online and in-store channels.
Additionally, one of the top priorities within mobile is providing deals and discounts exclusively for mobile app users. This is the No. 1 tactic marketers plan to implement in 2019 to grow sales, with 55 percent saying it was in their company’s plans. Notably, mobile continues to drive sales growth for retailers across both digital and in-store platforms. Retailers who successfully capture this consumer attention can gain more from an omnichannel approach than via single channel exposure.
Browser Extensions Make Saving Money Easier
But mobile isn’t the only way that discount-seeking customers are finding the deals they crave. A growing number of browser extensions automatically find and add deals to consumers’ online shopping carts. For example, RetailMeNot Genie is a free desktop browser extension that seamlessly applies RetailMeNot’s best codes and cash-back offers (which encourage shopper loyalty) at checkout on a retailer’s website.
Browser extensions like Genie are getting more attention and catching on with consumers. Shoppers say these extensions help them feel more confident that they’ve found the best deals on what they are buying. They also love that extensions help them spend less time searching for deals because they don’t have to go to different sites to comparison shop. All of that, they say, just makes shopping more fun.
Throughout the rest of 2019, we’ll be watching to see how shoppers’ expectations around deals, and the ease of finding those ideas, continue to evolve. For more insights like these, see the full 2019 Retailer Playbook.