By Christine Cline, Vice President of Marketing, Retale

More than ever, shoppers are using their smartphones to research and visit brick-and-mortar stores. Whether in a store or outside of one, mobile devices have become the new personal shopping assistant; according to Deloitte one-third of all in-store sales are now influenced by mobile.
The smartest retailers are taking note. Instead of staying married to traditional channels, they’re building mobile-first, omni-channel marketing strategies to drive traffic and maximize opportunities at every stage of the shopping journey including at home, in-store and post-purchase. Below are some of the things that should be top of mind for grocery marketers when building mobile content for each of the three stages.
Reaching shoppers before they walk into the store
Forty-five percent of grocery shoppers make purchase decisions before they enter the store, so it’s crucial to deliver the right content and influence potential customers at this stage.
At this point, grocery shoppers are seeking out deals and coupons, preparing and managing shopping lists, looking for recipes, and more. To make the most impact, marketers need to find ways to tie into these behaviors with their media & content. This includes optimizing website properties, partnering with mobile shopping apps, investing in search, and leveraging display advertising.
Grabbing their attention in-store
Although making it onto the initial shopping list is important, there is still an opportunity to impact purchase decisions at the store. At this stage, mobile becomes even more of a differentiator as your shoppers can access it at any time to seek out deals, check their shopping lists, scan a digital circular or pull up a recipe. As a result, push notifications are highly relevant, allowing you to deliver personalized content at just the right time to motivate your customers to take certain actions.
Staying connected after the purchase
Just because a shopper has checked out doesn’t mean a marketer’s job is over. Since shoppers continue to interact with brands after the purchase, resonating with them at this stage is a prime opportunity to build brand loyalty and generate buzz ahead of future shopping trips. The best way to do this is by delivering personalized content through email and social media, a majority of which is now being consumed on mobile devices.
Check out my full presentation from the PFMA 2017 Annual Conference for more tips on how to plan and activate your mobile-first marketing strategy: http://bit.ly/2qVGSrY

Christine Cline is vice president of marketing at Retale, a mobile shopping destination guiding millions of shoppers to relevant deals at their local stores. Retale is part of Bonial.com Group, a leading international network for location-based mobile advertising. Since its launch in Germany in 2008, the group has expanded to include 11 markets worldwide.