Mobile Marketing

In announcing its new mobile ordering service, Starbucks referenced a "seismic shift in consumer behavior in which many traditional brick-and-mortar retailers experienced a decline in foot traffic compared with significant growth in online shopping" during the 2013 holiday season. Indeed, consumers are increasingly comfortable with bypassing physical stores and purchasing goods online, especially when facing the prospect of holiday crowds and traffic.  

Berlin, Germany –- Five leading German retailers are partnering with U.S. shopping app Shopkick. At launch, Shopkick’s German network is comprised of more than 1,400 stores: all Douglas (largest beauty retailer in Germany), Media Markt and Saturn (together the largest consumer electronics retail chain in Germany), OBI (one of the largest do-it-yourself retailers in Germany) and Karstadt (one of the largest department stores in Germany) locations.

Washington, D.C. –- More than half of U.S. consumers plan to make at least some of their holiday purchases online this year.

Sunnyvale, Calif. –- Strong mobile revenue and proceeds from the sale of a portion of its stake in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. helped Yahoo Inc. beat Wall Street estimates for earnings per share (EPS) and revenue in the third quarter of fiscal 2014. EPS totaled $0.52, up 62% from $0.32 the same quarter the prior fiscal year, and revenue grew 1% to $1.15 billion from $1.14 billion.  

New York -- Using smartphones and tablets to shop for the holidays has grown by 53% since 2012, and is expected to play a big role in decision making and actual purchases this year, according to the American Express Spending & Saver Tracker. The report finds the average American consumer is back to holiday spending at 2012 levels, and will plan to shell out $842 this year (vs. $1,260 in 2013 and $848 in 2012).   Consumers saying they will use their gadgets to:

With marketers all abuzz about beacons, mobile technology company Swirl Networks said it has created the first programmatic ad exchange for proximity-based in store mobile marketing.
 

Portland will be the proving ground this fall for a new mobile commerce initiative from Starbucks called Mobile Order and Pay that is part of the company’s broader effort to radically transform the retail experience.

Retail advertising solutions provider Bonial International, parent company of Retale, has placed several executives in key roles as it looks to disrupt the traditional retail advertising universe.

Dan Cripe was name chief technology officer and Andrea Francesco Domeneghini was named chief marketing officer at Bonial and will be based in the company’s Berlin headquarters.