Shoppers are becoming SoMoLo

Well, it stands for Social Mobile & Local however which way you choose to mix it up. SoMoLo is clients/shoppers who put social mobile and local technologies, platforms and networks in place to enrich their shopping experiences.

Very clever shoppers they are :) This could be in one single shopping journey or just in their shopping lifestyle in general. These shoppers are everywhere, you have probably used a mobile device to tweet or Facebook your purchase while you are shopping, right? Studies have shown at least 1 out of every 2 people these days uses social applications like Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, etc to find the best possible advice while shopping.

Whether you are looking for price comparisons or what your friends think about your new pair of shoes or which pair you should buy, it’s basically everywhere and everyone is using it. The demands for these types of shopping assisting applications are continuing to escalate. Businesses should study their shoppers, as this will, in turn, produce valuable information to them.  Social, Mobile and Local tools can be used to reach your customers, to gather product information, or sell a product to the shopper. The largest group of shoppers are those who care a lot about their mobile phone.

Shoppers love getting discounts sent to their phone and using it as a coupon at the pay desk – easy, fast and convenient. No printing or searching for strings of emails. Although South Africans are still very hesitant to enter their credit card number on their mobile to buy a product or service, it would add so much more convenience to your shopping if the suppliers would make it able for the shopper to use this service on their mobile. QR Codes is another way you can interact with your customer. The biggest mistake most companies make is advertising a QR Code in a newspaper or magazine, but not making the content that it is linking to, optimized for a mobile device. This is a big problem because it usually links you to the full website of the product that is advertised and not the optimized mobile version. What shopper would want to spend the time scrolling up and down searching for your message? No time for that.

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The result:

‍Your conversion rate is very low. If only it was done right, QR codes can be huge for your business! The business should be careful to sell products on Facebook. Remember, Facebook was developed as a social platform, a place for content, engagement and interaction and not so much for shopping. There is a time and place for everything I say, so think carefully about your customer and if loading that catalogue on your Facebook page is really the right thing to do… Locally, customers are wanting to be recognized by the shops they walk into. This can be either by a pop up on your mobile and even more personalized even greet you by name. Afterwards, you will be guided to different sections in the store where there will be special offerings waiting for you. This is a real-time promotion while you are in the store, not something you receive a week after you have been shopping at your favourite supermarket.  

All making the life of the shopper that much easier and convenient. Pleasing a shopper, as we have come to learn is all about convenience and keeping up to date with the latest technologies. Don’t let your shopper outsmart you! Now you can see that it is not only important to have an optimized website but you must also keep up to date with the latest mobile & marketing techniques. I have configured a simple graph for you to see how women shop for products in general, just to give you an idea of the type of market research we do.

Have a look:

‍How Women in SA Shop - Do you use your mobile device while shopping? Leave a comment and tell us about your shopping habits.