As one in five high street shops potentially face closure by 2018, could digital wallets prove to be the tonic town centres need?

As one in five high street shops potentially face closure by 2018 according to the Centre for Retail Research, could digital wallets showcased by Australian retailer Coles prove to be the tonic town centres need?

Increased costs and online competition are adding to pressure onbricks and mortar retailers, but by adapting to the changing behaviour of consumerschallenge can perhaps be turned into opportunity.

Supermarket group Coles has demonstrated how to do just this. Its customers demanded a digital way to interact with it and requested an alternative way to make transactions through their mobile phones and tablets.

Consequently Coles launched a digital wallet combining a new app for iPhone and Android, an NFC phone sticker for contactless payment, and integration of its existing loyalty programme.

Observing a further opportunity to upsell other services, Coles launched the wallet alongside GE Capital so loans are offered to its supermarket shoppers as well.

This has given the retailer a new way to expand into new products and offer its customers a full portfolio of services from one chain.

While UK retailers, particularly equivalent supermarkets like Sainsbury’s have been selling financial services for more than a decade, Coles has broken into what is seemingly a difficult sector by listening, responding and adapting to its customers’ changing behaviour.

Mobile has become an integral part of everyday communication so the potential for retailers to incorporate a consumer’s mobile device into its own overall strategy to increase engagement is huge. 

We are beginning to see similar moves made by UK supermarkets, such as Tesco’s digital wallet. One thing that needs to be considered when devising the best mobile strategy is how retailers can use it to enhance the full consumer journey, rather than impacting on different points of this journey separately.

To be successful, retailers need to adapt to the changing consumer behaviour caused by mobile, to find new ways to be part of the whole shopping journey.

This needs to happen at the beginning of the journey, where a brand can engage with a shopper using offers promoted via NFC and QR codes. Here, retailers have the opportunity to build a valuable exchange by getting consumers to opt in and open up their device in exchange for offers that can be redeemed in-store.

Going one step further at this stage and asking shoppers how they want to be marketed to will start this journey off on the right foot.

Once in-store and throughout the purchasing decision, retailers can interact with shoppers through proximity marketing technology such as beacons to upsell bespoke offers relevant to the shopper.

At the checkout, providing the mechanisms for shoppers to complete a purchase using their device will give retailers a final touch point to secure the sale and offer an incentive, such as a voucher off a next in-store purchase, to secure a repeat visit.

Retailers have the opportunity to be visible, active and relevant at each stage of the consumer journey.

By providing the mechanisms to offer a convenient and frictionless way to complete that journey, retailers can begin to use mobile in the right way to see impactful results.

  • Neil Garner, founder and chief excutive of mobile marketing company Proxama