Luxury Daily reports that Juniper Research expects there to be an estimated 1.05 billion mobile coupon users by 2019 as a direct result of targeted mobile marketing techniques currently favored by retailers. Preferred customers are now being sent SMS messages by companies offering a variety of coupons and discount codes, which can in turn be redeemed both online and in-store.
This is an extremely intelligent business move, because consumers tend to use a variety of different technologies in their daily lives, shopping in a way that naturally utilizes several different devices and programs. In fact, it would not be unusual for a shopper to receive a deal over a mobile device, access a store's inventory over a laptop and finally make a purchase in the brick-and-mortar establishment. For this reason consumers require that companies present a fluid, integrated, user-friendly offering over the entire range of devices available.
Additionally, geotargeting has increased the success of mobile text marketing, because customers who are physically close to a store can be instantly made aware of current deals and promotions. In this way, the most likely customers can be found with very little effort on the part of the business.
Tech Cocktail predicts a dramatic increase in businesses using targeted mobile marketing techniques, saying, "Mobile shoppers are often considered to be the most loyal customer group, which is why they can get preferential treatment. Now, connected users will not get the same generalized offers through various means like email and SMS, but will have specialized offers based on their preferences to look forward to. We're likely to see time- and location-based offers through mobile alerts because it's such an effective channel." Especially as the presence of paper-based coupons and advertising material rapidly decreases.
