Mobile Marketing In The Retail Industry

The mobile landscape is growing at an exceptionally fast pace, exceeding predictions set by analysts. Retail business owners should take advantage of this massive growth by incorporating mobile into their overall marketing strategy. Whether you offer e-commerce transactions or not, mobile can help you achieve your professional goals. To learn more about mobile marketing in the retail industry, keep reading.

Why Mobile Is Dominating

Mobile phones have been around for decades, so why is the field dominating now? There are several different factors which have recently bolstered the mobile market, one of which being the technological advancements. Mobile phones today aren't used strictly for sending and receiving calls. Sure, they perform this task just fine, but they are also capable of browsing the internet, using email services, SMS messages, playing games, accessing social media and much more.

Another reason why the mobile landscape is dominating is because carrier service has improved. Cellular carriers are building new towers, offering 4G speeds for their customers. This means fewer dropped calls and faster mobile internet speed.

Is Your Business Website Mobile-Friendly?

If you have a website for your retail business, you should check to make sure it's mobile-friendly. Just because your website loads fine in a traditional desktop web browser doesn't necessarily it will perform the same on a mobile phone. Mobile phones render webpages differently, and you could be losing huge amounts of traffic due to incompatibility issues.

There are several different options for creating a mobile-friendly website, but Google recommends webmasters use a responsive web design. On the search engine company's official blog, they state:

"Responsive web design is a technique to build web pages that alter how they look using CSS3 media queries. That is, there is one HTML code for the page regardless of the device accessing it, but its presentation changes using CSS media queries to specify which CSS rules apply for the browser displaying the page."

Use QR Codes

Another near little mobile marketing strategy that more and more retail businesses are using is quick read (QR) codes.  Ever notice a square-shaped bar code on a store window, magazine, bus stop, or even the back window of a car? These are QR codes, and they're an effective, modern way to market a business to mobile users. Basically, the consumer scans the QR code with his or her smartphone, at which point it sends them to a website.

Retail store owners can use QR codes to offer discounts and promotional codes to customers. Rather than sending consumers straight to your official website, you can connect the QR code to a special coupon.