NEW YORK - Sept. 29, 2019 - Mobile technology is revolutionizing the market strategies of modern businesses, but retailers are still at risk of missing the boat when it comes to managing online platforms and ecosystems.
Retailers are struggling to manage their business information and content across digital platforms, and that's a problem because they are very predictive of consumer intent and customer acquisition. Let's face it, having a mobile-friendly website alone won't drive traffic to your business.
But before we drill deep down into this trend, let's paint a really broad definition of what a Digital Platform looks like. Websites are static pages, whereas platforms are dynamic frameworks where applications are run.
DPs include Google search, Social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn; "Knowledge" platforms like StackOverflow, web markets like Amazon, App stores, crowd-sourcing sites like AirBnB, repositories like GitHub, infrastructure platforms like Azure and many others.
Check out this blurb on YouTube (https://youtu.be/WvA9wRIIvAU)
So How mobile are we?
Over half of all global web traffic comes from mobile devices.
At the same time, customers are putting more weight on a retailer's visibility and accuracy across DPs, and the key to success is visibility and accuracy. That's because consumers demand reliable business content -- 94% of customers say real-time product inventory information is critical when choosing a retailer, according to a recent survey conducted by Synup, a company focused on "Intent Marketing".
Similarly, user-generated ratings and reviews are crucial -- 82% of customers would not choose a business with a rating of fewer than three stars on media channels like Yelp, says Synup
"Consumers are engaging with third-party digital profiles (on Mobile devices) and (those DPs) are increasingly defining retail brand identity" Ashwin Ramesh, CEO of Synup.
Interestingly, nearly three-quarters of people discover local businesses on map apps, so brick-and-mortar retailers urgently need to optimize their digital presence across third-party platforms if they want to thrive.
To prove that point, Synup analyzed the presence and accuracy of retail digital profiles across 50 major media channels (like Google, Facebook, Yelp, or Bing) for 559 business locations for 5 national retail brands.
The analysis found that even the biggest retailers struggle to ensure the quality of their brand content across the digital world. Approximately 50% of those five major retailers' digital profiles were somewhat inaccurate across platforms or missing entirely.
"If people can't even find your store, or if they can't immediately see the content they're looking for at their moment of purchase intent, you're at real risk" adds Ramesh.
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