Mobile payments can overcome mobile marketing challenges

Mobile devices are no longer just a tool for browsing and socializing among consumers. Evolving mobile technology has pushed consumer behavior toward making more purchases on devices—and it’s often as easy as one tap.

RetailMeNot recently released a study with Kelton Global that surveyed over 200 mobile marketing decision makers in the retail industry. What we found is that while mobile is certainly table stakes for retailers and brands, many still struggle with how to keep up in the ever-changing landscape. In fact, more than half (54%) say mobile marketing technology evolves too fast for them to keep up.

Additionally, targeting customers and linking mobile marketing efforts to in-store sales remain a challenge for retailers and brands. This is where mobile payments can make a difference.

With the arrival of new mobile technologies like Apple Pay bursting quickly onto the scene, retailers and brands felt the future of retail was about to change—but by how much? While widespread adoption did not immediately happen, apps like Starbucks and Venmo made big moves that garnered attention and transformed the way businesses now interact with consumers.

In fact, mobile payment transactions in the United States are expected to grow at a compound rate of 20 percent per year through 2021, according to the Mobile Payments Forecast, 2016 to 2021 (US) Report by Forrester Research.

This provides tremendous opportunity for retail and brand marketers to extend their reach with mobile shopping and to gain more insights into the way their customers behave on mobile devices.

One way retailers and brands can extend marketing reach is through platforms like mobile wallets or card-linked offers. For marketers that are already running promotions on mobile platforms or through loyalty programs, digital wallets can be a natural extension of these efforts.

Retailers and brands that don’t have the resources to build these platforms from the ground up can, for a mutually beneficial relationship, partner with technology and mobile app companies that already have engaged audiences on these tools.

Partnerships allow for the sharing of data and insights, which offers a view into not only the content that one’s audience is actively engaging with but also that of a competitors’.

The key to building successful mobile programs that include mobile wallets, payments and more is to make the process easier than the current consumer payments model. By offering additional incentives on these platforms—like linked offers, rewards points or unique mobile offers—retailers can help push the adoption of these platforms to be a more widespread marketing tool.