How Macy’s, Target Tap Devices For The Holidays
In the classic film Miracle on 34th Street, the most accurate resource for product updates was R.H. Macy’s Santa Claus. Today, Santa’s got an app, and so do many of the stores he visits. The result: Consumers are increasingly purchasing directly from mobile devices, skipping the aisle, the desktop and any possible referrals to Macy’s or Gimbels. Sales on mobile devices increased 56% in 2015, to $49.2 billion — double the growth rate of 2014, according to The Wall Street Journal, citing comScore. Nearly 40% of desktop purchases in the fourth quarter of 2015 occurred after a customer visited the retailer’s app or mobile site. Retailers are taking note. Many merchants from Target to Macy’s and more are offering holiday-specific apps or tailoring existing apps to include holiday trimmings. “The retailers that are succeeding are training customers to think of their smartphones like an all-day impulse aisle,” The Wall Street Journal stated. “Apps are able to capture data available on handsets and push consumers to buy when they have a spare moment.” Read more at Forbes.
