E-Commerce & Mobile Commerce

Overview

The on-demand economy is certainly alive and well, both domestically in the U.S. and globally as well. We live in a time when mobile E-commerce is shaping both the Business-to-Consumer (B2C) and Business-to-Business (B2B) marketplaces. Today it is a common activity for shoppers and commercial buyers to access Internet websites utilizing mobile smartphones or tablets to purchase a product or order a service. Consumers frequently use their smart devices to conduct research as a preamble to visiting a brick and mortar store before purchasing a product or ordering a service.

Legacy brick-and-mortar companies have had to get on board the ‘online shopping bandwagon’ in order to stay competitive.

Case Study Assignment
Download and utilize the APA Style Template and review the Case Study Requirements section.

Conduct research on ONE of the following technology trends that influence today’s on-demand economy mobile E-commerce and compose a scholarly case study paper that provides details on the topic.

Location-Based Marketing
Mobile Retargeting
Virtual and Augmented Reality on Mobile
Mobile SEO
Chatbots, AI, Shopping Assistants
Internet of Things (IoT)
Follow the guidelines in the Case Study Requirements section.

ANSWER

Location Based Marketing

Due to the increase the number of internet accessibility, mobile devices and targeting technologies and companies can be utilized in location based marketing to reach different audience in particular locations. Location based marketing has been a direct marketing strategy that relies on mobile devices to create awareness to the owner of the devices about different and new product offerings. Capturing and tracking client’s history have offered retail companies the ability to understand the customer interest, location, past purchasing, income as well as the purchasing decisions.  The case study will focus on location based marketing technology trends that impact on demand economy. Companies have relied on location-based marketing to grow their business.

Over the years, mobile marketing has been considered as the present and future of marketing. In order for businesses to ensure that, they are competitive. Companies have deployed marketing strategies to ensure that they boost their sales. Location based marketing has been used to create strategies that business have relied on to monetize and benefit from their social media presence.

There are four different strategies of location-based marketing that companies are using to boost their business. These include customer acquisition, driving repeat sales, rewarding top customers and building customer loyalty (Mclaughlin et al., 2018). In customer acquisition, companies are able to acquire to acquire consumers in two approaches. At first, the companies are able to reach out more consumers through offering discounts, coupons and offering deals  through their mobile devices. Therefore, customers can be able to access the offerings available. Secondly, companies can rely on customer acquisition through utilization of online databases. Mc Donald’s had enabled customers to check their locations through utilization of mobile applications on their devices.

The second strategy through which a business can boost their growth is through driving repeat sales. Companies decide to offer a deal, where customers check in and receive free awards (Campbell & Haro, 2015). For instance, a company such as smoothie king has relied on check ins to find out the most loyal consumers. Relatively, Starbucks offer special gifts to the clients as a way of building loyalty.

The Third Strategy of LbM that companies use to grow their business is through rewarding top clients. For instance, Foursquare focuses on special gifts to the top consumers who have purchased and checked in many times. A special gift such as free tote bag have been used to reward top consumers. Companies have also offered discounts on high spending consumers to acknowledge their contributions (Yim Ganesan & Kang, 2017). Top consumers have also been invited in special events to maximize profitability and loyalty of the company as well as giving best value to it’s top consumers.

The fourth strategy that companies can use to build the client’s loyalty is by utilizing reward programs and loyalty card schemes. This has played a great role in building customer loyalty as well as showing great value to the clients. For instance, Starbucks app has loyalty programs more interactively and effectively. The app enables company to see the stars that the customers have gathered more stars and purchased most items. To engage new customers and existing customers to come and purchase their drinks, Starbucks came up with a good card. The card has also offered the customers with an exclusive and important feeling of motivation.

Conclusion

In summation, companies can achieve marketing goals through the use of location based marketing. All the locations based marketing strategies have been effective in attracting and maintaining customers. LBM has enabled various companies to drive sales and keeping them linked to the business.

References

Campbell, A. G., & Haro, J. (2015). U.S. Patent Application No. 14/708,992.

Mclaughlin, K., Dahl, C., Cartwright, R., & Higgins, M. (2018). U.S. Patent No. 9,858,537. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Yim, J., Ganesan, S., & Kang, B. H. (2017). Location-based mobile marketing innovations.