LOCATION. LOCATION. LOCATION.

It’s all about location.

It is critical for brands to understand the consumer journey and what are the touch points during this path. These key moments represent the times when a consumer is more open to purchase or consume a certain product and when it becomes really relevant to deliver a call-to-action.

To know about those moments means collecting multiple data about the consumers and his behaviour. And knowing about their location means that the brands can connect and engage with the consumer at the right moment.

Location-enabled advertising is not a new concept but the different arrays of the technology and the proliferation of smartphones are only now allowing marketers to take full advantage of it.

Location data is playing an important asset for brands to connect with consumers in the real world, and the smartphone is being the key communication channel to deliver that engagement everywhere.

Pre-installed mobile wallets applications on smartphones, such as Apple Wallet or Android Pay, allow brands to reach their audience in a relevant and compelling way, giving the opportunity for marketers to benefit from mobile wallets as a new mobile marketing communication channel.

And one of the most interesting features of mobile wallets is the possibility to engage in real-time with the consumers using native location-based technology or by interacting with beacons. Marketers can specify strategic locations or associate beacons to the mobile wallet, in order to trigger location-based notifications directly to the consumer smartphone.

Learn more and try to create your own location-based mobile wallet marketing campaigns with a free Passworks trial.

HOW TO DELIVER A PASS INTO YOUR CUSTOMER MOBILE WALLET?

A Mobile Wallet Pass can take the form of a membership card, a boarding pass, a coupon, an event ticket, a store card and others.

It is really easy for a customer to install a Mobile Wallet Pass. The most common ways to distribute it are shown below.

EMAIL

You can distribute your mobile pass by sending an email to your customers with the url link, a .pkpass file or the QR code of the mobile pass to be scanned.

SMS

Communicate the url link of your pass via a text message.

MARKETING MATERIALS

Insert the QR code of your pass on your marketing materials for customers to install the pass directly into the mobile wallet, once they scan it.

WEBSITE

Enable customers to install your mobile pass directly from your website by adding a add to wallet button (mobile) or a QR code to be scanned (desktop).

MOBILE APP

Allow your customer to store a mobile pass directly from your mobile app.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Integrate and communicate your pass from mobile social media platforms such as Facebook or Twitter

On-Going Conversation & Customer Engagement

Mobile Wallets allow to start on-going conversations with your customers by managing the wallet pass. With the ability to do real-time pass updates, you can refresh the content of the pass frequently according to your brand strategy, so your customers always have an up-to-date pass and keep it on their mobile device indefinitely.

Paez, an international Argentinian shoes brand, provides exclusive value to their customers through Paez mobile wallet pass.

Paez first mobile wallet pass

Paez wallet pass is regularly updated to communicate new campaigns and deals, while giving Paez a powerful on-going mobile engagement channel and the ability to amplify an offer when it real counts. In this way, Paez is giving to their customers the opportunity to get the most value of their shopping experience.

Mobile wallets are proving to be a great tool to improve customer experience and delivering sales growth. Paez is already on-board with happy customer and great results!

SMARTPHONE USERS WANT REAL-TIME PROMOTIONS

Mobile is fast changing the retail landscape, specially when it comes to real-time promotions. Accenture^* surveyed more than 10.000 adult smartphones users worldwide, who shopped both in-store and digitally for the past 3 months.

Consumers use their smartphone when shopping and receiving real-time promotions is one of top smartphone retail services they desire.

Nearly half of smartphone user worldwide said they can´t wait to receive real-time promotions from retailer on their smartphone device. Also, 42% said they want the ability to credit coupons and discounts automatically.

Despite the majority of the respondents mentioned they want to receive real-time promotions, the fact is that only 7% of worldwide retailers are offer that service to their consumers.

Retailers understand the benefits of higher mobile engagement and Mobile wallets are one of the methods that retailers can have to give to their customers what they want. With Mobile Wallets, such as Apple Wallet or Android Pay, retailers can send to their customers’ real-time promotions and offers without the need for an App.

By taking advantage of the non-payment side of Mobile Wallets, the retailers can create a Perpetual Coupon that once is installed on the smartphone opens a real-time communication channel between the retailer and customer.

The Coupon can be updated in real-time with new promotions or offers according to the retailers’ strategy.
Directly send a notification to the customer´s lock screen alerting them of the new promotion.
Creates geo-fences and/or beacons that tie for a more personalized experience.

^* Source: Accenture February 2016 “Retail customers are shouting – Are you adapting?”

The new Passworks platform is here!

At Passworks our customers are always our focus, and as a result, we’ve just released the new version of our platform. Many of you have already experienced the new platform and be sure we appreciated all the feedback received.

Aside of many small improvements, the new platform brings:

A cleaner and more intuitive interface to design the passes and roll out the campaigns;
New features adding even more value to what our customers are already doing, including CSV file integration, EAN128/GS1 – 1D barcode integration, among other features, and preparation for upcoming releases;
New pricing model with monthly and yearly subscriptions in order to give you control over your campaign’s budget and, of course, with everything included (unlimited push notifications, pass updates, etc);
Several new functionalities were added to our API: https://api.passworks.io;

The right moment for Mobile Wallets…

The shift to mobile is definitely happening in 2016! For more information or support to create your mobile coupon campaign contact us.

Have a great week! 🙂

*Sources: Forrester’s Consumer Technographics Financial Services Survey; NCH Marketing Services & State of the Mobile Coupon Industry report by Koupon Media

Passworks at RBTE 2016!

Passworks team will be present again at the RBTE event on March 9th & 10th at Olympia, in London!

Feel free to contact us to arrange a speed dating meeting or come by and visit us at stand 159 to further discuss what are the new features of mobile wallets and Beacons! We will be happy to meet you! 🙂

SEPHORA DIGITAL STRATEGY & THE IMPORTANCE OF APPLE WALLET

Sephora has built a reputation as a big player in mobile. The Sephora mobile strategy is wide ranging and might seem complex, but there is a pattern that they use repeatedly.

First, and most important, Sephora strategy is customer focussed and on providing an informed experience, rather than holistic or technology focussed. Secondly, with the customer always at the centre, Sephora develops integrated cross-channel strategies that merge seamless for the customer.

“Sephora strategy
is customer-focused
and on providing
an informed experience”

Sephora knows digital. They know the importance of mobile and how mobile fits into the bigger picture, whether online or offline and, most of all, they understand how to combine and move between channels in a way that makes sense to their customers.

Sephora have their hands in Web, App, social networks (Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest), CRM, email, SMS, mobile commerce, digital loyalty using Apple Wallet Passes (Passbook) and more.

Main Elements of Sephora’s Mobile Strategy

Updated & excellent usability on the Website
Good mobile App
CRM with Email and SMS
Apple Wallet (Passbook) with Loyalty Card, Discount Coupons and Gift Cards
Integration with social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest
Mobile Shopping experience
Seamless experience across functionalities and promotions
Active promotion of mobile features across all channels

Overview of Mobile Results and Performance

1/3 of all traffic to the Sephora website is from mobile devices
Over 50% of Sephora’s emails are opened on mobile devices
Mobile website m.sephora.com (full shopping and Beauty Insider)
Successful Sephora Apps
More than 600,000 Sephora customers who have their Loyalty Card installed it on Apple Wallet
Apple Wallet users spend twice as much annually and purchase twice as frequently as average Sephora customers

“1/3 of all traffic to the Sephora website is from mobile devices”

There is a lot to learn from the way Sephora has implemented their mobile strategy. Sephora has driven significant value from connecting in-store and offline media with Mobile Apps and Apple Wallet Passes, using multiple channels to build awareness. Email, SMS, Mobile Media, QR Codes and loyalty programmes have been put to good effect in supporting consistent brand messaging throughout.

For retailers, integration with existing loyalty programs makes excellent sense as a first step into mobile. And the use of services like Apple Wallet to enable digital loyalty cards, offers and coupon redemption are a must have without the need to build custom technology.

A Bigger Industry for Mobile Wallets in 2016

Mobile tech dependency heightens this year with the prevalence of more mobile wallets and mobile payment systems. In a survey by Accenture, Millennials (23%) and those from higher-income households (38%) led the pack in contactless payments where they are said to them at least once a week. More than half of those from North America (52%) are already “extremely aware” of mobile payments, according to the research. However, mobile wallets will become even more popular this year due to various factors and changes in the mobile and tech industry.

Here are some of the biggest influencers of mobile wallets in 2016:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/38827603@N03/18302185568/

Mobile Wallet Marketing will become a must

With Mobile Wallets, such as Apple Pay, Android Pay or Samsun Pay, customers now have more options than ever when it comes to paying via their smartphone. But mobile wallets have much more uses beyond enabling mobile payments, allowing users to add things such as coupons, store or loyalty cards, boarding passes, tickets or membership cards.

The non-payment side of mobile wallets is still nascent in terms of brand adoption, but as smartphone users are becoming more in sync with its functionalities brands should look to move their tickets or coupon and loyalty campaigns to more dynamic digital smartphone versions. Digital wallets form an important part of the current trend of new mobile technologies which are all focused on creating unique, innovative and real-time experiences for customers whilst paving the way for a more seamless transition between the physical and the digital worlds.

Bitcoin will become mainstream

Among the available crypto currencies worldwide, Bitcoin is the most popular and is becoming more accepted by consumers and businesses alike. In fact, some retailers have already started accepting this virtual coin as payment for transactions and we have seen a growing number of Bitcoin ATMs installed worldwide. In May 2015, there were already 400 machines installed globally and more are expected to be installed this year. Bitcoin is said to be taking on the popular virtual payment system PayPal, as it offers a more secure process to its users. Currently, Bitcoin firms are trying hard to make the currency mainstream.

“The benefit is going to be for people who want to use an online service, and don’t want to worry about managing and securing private keys and so forth. They can store as much as they want, there’s no fees, and it includes all the offline storage we provide as well as full insurance on all deposits,” said Bitcoin bank representative Jeremy Allaire.
Cheaper devices with NFC

The NFC (near field communication) chipset is now becoming a mainstream feature in almost all the handsets on the market, including the budget-friendly ones. However, many premium handsets in 2015 are still expensive, leaving many consumers waiting for the sales to give them a chance of owning such an expensive smartphones. Other NFC-enabled handsets are now also more affordable via various providers worldwide as newer devices are set to take over the market soon.

Iris scanning technology arrives

In 2016, a new biometric security in the form of iris scanning will dominate the next wave of mobile devices as it guarantees to be less costly and more secure than any known mobile sensors today. Since it will be more affordable than fingerprint scanning, we are hopeful that handsets with iris scanning will be cheaper, if not, it should at least have the same price tag.
We are certain that there are other factors that will affect the growing industry of mobile wallets this year, as new mobile technologies are set to revolutionize the next wave of smartphones.

Do you foresee the mobile wallet industry blossoming in 2016? We’d love to hear your thoughts so feel free to leave us a comment below.

Exclusively written for Passworks
By Tech-to-Day

Photo Credit: Vodafone Germany Corporate Communications via Compfight cc

Mobile Wallets: the ability to send Notifications

Even that you have a great App, not all your target clients will want it. This is supported by a recent Forrester research that found out “60% of US consumers have two or fewer retailer apps on their phones, 21% do not have any and only 3% had more than 10”.

Having said this, your customers will probably fall in one of two categories:

Brand loyalists who want your App, or
Not interested in downloading another App.

With the customers who have your App installed, you can use push notifications to send relevant information at right moment and time driving customer engagement and conversion. But as previously seen, only a part of your customers will have your App.

These facts impact your mobile marketing strategy and automatically brings questions that the marketers need to answer. How are you going to reach your customers? How are you going to create an active mobile engagement? How can I send push notifications to my customers?

The answer is Mobile Wallets Marketing.

With Mobile Wallet Marketing brands can create mobile wallet passes that can be downloaded in Apple Wallet or Android Pay (native Apps). This a great opportunity for brands and a brilliant solution for those customers who like your brand, but for some reason don´t want to install your App.

By using mobile wallets, brands can be on their consumer´s smartphone and engage with them in real time. One of the best things about mobile wallet is the possibility to send notifications that can appear on the smartphone lock-screen, similar to push notifications coming from apps. And since mobile wallets do not require any opt-in, they can act as a “small App”, allowing you to message your customer without them need to install your own App.

Basically, mobile wallet gives you the opportunity to communicate and engage directly with your customers without requiring a heavy commitment from them.

Mobile Wallets move forward when looking back at 2015

As we prepare to embrace 2016, is always good to look back
and see what happened in 2015, specially within the mobile wallets industry.

Back in January, Marketing Land defined some major mobile trends considering mobile-as-a-channel:

“Mobile will also play an increasingly important role in the evolution and user behaviour of social networks both new and existing”.

And within those trends, we saw Mobile Wallets becoming a reality. One of the most relevant facts of mobile wallets, was that on top of the high usage for payments the growth of mobile wallet marketing, specially in the retail, travel and accommodation industries, alongside with the integration of location-based marketing tools such as beacons technology.

Business 2 Community reported in July that “44% of consumers would like brands to deliver deals and coupons to their mobile devices“ building an even more momentum for the mobile wallet marketing. Also in July, and after the successful launch in the US, we saw the Apple Pay debuted in the UK, making its presence at 250,000 locations all over the country and supported by major apps like Five Guys, Zara, YPlan and MyCheck in the restaurant industry.

In the second half of the year, on September 10^th, Google “fought back” and released Android Pay in the US, already accepting American Express, Discover, MasterCard and Visa, their second mobile wallet attempt. Despite not being yet a native App brought several relevant functionalities and also allows storing gift cards, loyalty card and special offers. According to PYMNTS, “Android Pay is compatible with roughly 70% of the Android phones currently in the U.S. “ and, with Android occupying 51.6% of the US smartphone market, you never know how will this mobile wallet battle turn out to be.

It wasn’t long before Apple came back to the spotlight. A few weeks later, on October 1^st, Apple launched its new operating system iOS 9. Among new devices such iPhone 6S and a new Surface Pro competitor (iPad Pro), this new update brought a makeover from Passbook App to Apple Wallet, a new loyalty program and EAN 128 codes for digital passes. Dunkin´ Donuts, Walgreens Balance Rewards, MyPanera, among others brands are already supporting these new iOS 9 features.

Right after the launch of Apple’s new iOS, Android Pay pushed a new ‪loyalty program which allows its users to buy cheaper Cokes after the purchase of full price Cokes at vending machines. According to PYMNTS, “the move has been widely applauded by mobile watchers, who note that Google is going the extra mile to help users build habits around phone use but giving them an easy and literally rewarding way to build the habit.”.

Apple continued expanding Apple Pay with the launch in Canada and Australia in November. Jennifer Bailey, Apple’s vice-president for Apple Pay mention to CBC “the company is starting with American Express in Canada and Australia because it’s both the card issuer and the payment-network operator so co-ordination is easier“, meaning that Visa and Mastercard users still have to wait for compatibility. However, back to 2014 and according to the Nilson Report, Amex users accounted only for just 5% of Canadian spending and 17% in Australia, so the outcome is still being figured out.

For Apple next countries will be Spain, Hong Kong and Singapore during 2016, while for Google the next target is Australia.

With all these launches and features upgrades, Passworks have been evolving as well. Using Passworks platform it is now possible to create passes with EAN 128 code with an alternative code for iOS 8 users and also to deliver mobile passes through CSV file, Email and SMS, which makes it possible for brands with different types of CRM to create mobile content. Another obstacle that usually stands in the way of brands’ campaigns is the POS implementation and technology compatibility issue, due to the fact that most of scanners only read a certain type of code, which made it impossible to create marketing campaigns that couldn’t be redeem. Henceforth, Passworks team developed an App called Passworks Scanner, available for both Android and iOS that enables Passworks’ users to use this app to redeem the passes and monitoring the campaign. Also, Passworks developed its own wallet app, which enables Android users to experience the same Apple’s Wallet usability. Finally (wow, it was a full year!), Passworks is having a work-in-progress makeover, which means that during these next few months, there is going to be a lot of improvements, as seen by the new already implemented design.

With the emergence of this new mobile wallet ecosystem, leaded by Apple Pay, Google Wallet, Android Pay, Samsung Pay and PayPal Wallet, this means a great opportunity for brands to invest because not only it is increasing exponentially the visibility among users but because it is starting to change other markets, such as banking, and become mainstream.

According to Business Insider, “Apple announced a number of forthcoming changes to Apple Pay, including synchronization with rewards cards”, which means that marketing is even more embedded on these interactions and that these digital channels provide a relevant experience for consumers and opportunity for brands.

There is a great concentration on the mobile business, whether in payments, marketing or advertising. 2015 is not yet over and the numbers showed by EConsultancy are already showing a “10% increase in paid search advertising spend compared with last year, with all growth coming from ads on mobile devices”. Nevertheless, the outcome is always dependent from brands’ marketing strategies, context and how well do they really know their consumers’ behaviors and engage with them. More and more there is no way to escape the premise that “mobile can no longer be viewed as a separate channel”.

The bottom line is that brands must put the consumer at the center of their digital strategy because location-based mobile marketing drives multi-channel conversions, offline actions and consumer engagement, as can see on the Warehouse’s case study: “Since moving our coupons to wallet, we’ve seen significantly increased top-of-mind visibility among consumers, and we expect to achieve seven-figure sales results from our investment in 2015”.