Tag: Mobile

Warby Parker’s New App May Stop Customers From Visiting Its Offline Competitors

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Online eyeglasses retailer Warby Parker has launched a new app that allows users to check their prescription at home, without visiting an optician. It assists users to find the correct distance to conduct the equivalent of the familiar Snellen eye exam on a computer screen and send the results to an eye doctor for review. If their vision has not changed, they can also get an updated glasses prescription without needing to visit an eye doctor. The service is only available in California, Florida, New York, and Virginia so far.

What Brands Need To Do
It is a clever strategic move on Warby Parker’s part to leverage mobile to enhance its post-sale customer services and boost retention. Saving the customers a trip to the opticians not only provides convenience for glass-wearers, but also prevents customers from visiting its brick-and-mortar competitors — some of whom host in-house optometrists to offer vision exams — and buy glasses online. More brands should take note and think about similar ways to leverage mobile apps to enhance your user experience and redefine their customer journey.

 

Source: TechCrunch

Header image courtesy of Warby Parker

Facebook Adds Call-To-Action Buttons To Instant Articles

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Facebook has added some long-anticipated call-to-action units to Instant Articles, its program for fast-tracking web page loading on mobile. Facebook opened up Instant Articles to all publishers last year, making it possible for brands to put their branded content as Instant Articles as well. But the design of Instant Articles stayed “read only,” with limited options for publishers and content creators to engage further with the readers, until today. Now, thanks to the call-to-action units, Facebook is allowing content creators to drive signups for newsletters and subscriptions.

What Brands Need To Do
Instant Articles is an important tool for brands pushing out content on Facebook because it promises to significantly shorten the page loading time on mobile, which is a big factor in page abandonment. According to surveys conducted by Kissmetrics, about half online consumers expect a web page to load in 2 seconds or less and tend to abandon the ones that failed to load within 3 seconds.

This Instant Articles update provides publishers and content creators a direct way to communicate with their audiences and establish a long-term relationship with them. This new feature makes Instant Articles a much more valuable channel for brands to invest their branded or sponsored content in, and more brands considering using Facebook’s social platforms to reach customers on mobile need to take advantage of this new tool.

 

Source: AdWeek

Starbucks Launches An iMessage App That Let You Text Friends Gift Cards

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Starbucks is bringing gifting into your text messages with an updated iOS app released on Tuesday. The Seattle-based global coffee chain added a new “Starbucks Gifts” iMessage applet to its mobile app, allowing users send digital gift cards through Apple’s iMessage and pay for them using Apple Pay. Users can choose from a selection of images that fits the occasions and customize the gifted value for the gift card before completing the purchase with Apple Pay. Then the customized gift card is ready to be sent via iMessage.

In addition, the updated Starbucks app come with a few other improvements, such as enhanced push notifications, a revamped mobile order and pay user experience, and a store locator with new filtering options.

What Brands Need To Do
Previously, early-adopting brands like Dunkin’ Donuts and Coach have also developed iMessage app to expand the reach of their mobile apps into texting, but none has bothered to integrate with Apple Pay for a smooth, frictionless user experience like Starbucks is doing now. The payment integration makes it easy and convenient for users to generate gift cards, while he integration with iMessage. creates a more intimate user experience that lends a personal touch to the gifting process. Together, they make for a great branded gifting experience that helps recruit more customers to use its mobile app and elevates Starbucks’ brand equity, Therefore, brands looking to stay connected with mobile customers should take a cue and develop similar initiatives to explore messaging and conversational environments.

 

Source: 9to5 Mac

Starbucks Tests New Concept Store That Only Takes Mobile Orders

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Starbucks is reportedly planning to open a concept store at its Seattle headquarters as it tests how to best serve mobile-oriented customers. This new Reserve store will be dedicated to mobile orders, meaning customers will place their orders and pay in advance via the Starbucks app and then pick up their purchases at the store. A second Reserve store is set to open in Chicago later this year.

What Brands Need To Do
This new store concept makes perfect sense for Starbucks given the success of its mobile app. In 2016, an average 7 million Starbucks customers ordered through the mobile app every month. Its massive popularity can be largely attributed to the seamless integration of Starbucks loyalty program in the mobile order and payment app. This new store format should help alleviate the long queues at certain stores at peak hours by routing the mobile orders to a Reserve pickup station nearby, therefore serving the convenience-focused customers without compromising the in-store experience. More QSR and retail brands need to learn a thing or two from this Starbucks initiative and consider how to design a mobile-first store experience.

 

Source: TechCrunch

Adidas Launches Fitness App To Stay Connected With Customers

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Adidas is finally entering the connected health scene with its first branded fitness app All Day. Available now on iOS and Android, the app aims to provide a holistic approach to help users stay fit and healthy with a wide range of tutorial content covering topics from yoga moves to healthy recipes. The app can also be used to track your data in a series of health aspects such as movement, nutrition, and sleep.

Interestingly, Adidas says right now the app is designed to focus on the female customers, since its data suggest they are the key users in the wellness space, although the company says there will be additional content geared toward men later on.

What Brands Need To Do
The launch of this app marks a much-needed change of strategy for Adidas, who announced at SXSW festivals earlier this month that it is looking to create a new open ecosystem for its digital fitness products. As connected consumers increasingly expect brands to provide a digital component to their products and services, Adidas makes the right move to catch up with more tech-savvy rival brands Nike and Under Armour in terms of developing a digital fitness ecosystem that complements its products and foster an online community that helps build brand affinity.

 

Source: SportTechie

Header image courtesy of Adidas’ promotional image

Marriott Revamps Mobile App Based On User Activities

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Looking to enhance its customer experience on mobile, Marriott Hotel has updated its app based on guest feedback to offer a more intuitive user experience. The revamped app sports a “one-button” ergonomic design that is easy to navigate, along with a swipeable home screen that let users easily switch from different scenarios such as checking-in or planning future stays. Each swipe will bring up a new page that brings up the most relevant information for their needs within those contexts, such as access to Marriott Rewards account information or personalized content delivered via the app’s built-in messaging service called mPlaces. The international hotel chain has achieved some early successes with its mobile app, which drives $1.7 billion in annual bookings.

What Brands Need To Do
Marriott is certainly not the first brand to adopt the swipeable designed popularized by dating app Tinder – cosmetic retailer Sephora also opted for a swipe-based interface for its mobile app, – but the way the hotel chain used this mechanism to let guests easily navigate the app through different stages of their travel and quickly get to what they need. As more brands rush into the mobile space, they should take note and learn to design it in a mobile-intuitive way that presents a user experience that matches with consumer behavior.

 

Source: Travel&Tour World

YouTube Opens Mobile Live Streaming To More Influencers

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
YouTube is now allowing content creators with over 10,000 subscribers to live broadcast directly from their mobile devices. This marks the latest roll out of YouTube’s mobile live streaming products, which the company first started limited testing in June. YouTube also noted it is working to roll out this feature to all users soon. In addition, YouTube also created a new “Super Chat” feature to let fans amplify their comments by featuring them atop the chat window and highlighted in various colors.

What Brands Need To Do
According to a recent AYTM Market Research survey, over 56% of U.S. internet users have viewed live video content from others on social media or livestreaming apps, with 11% reporting that they do it regularly. With this update, YouTube is finally catching up with its mobile-friendly rivals like Facebook Live and Twitter, making it easier to YouTube influencers to go live and monetize their content. Despite being late to support mobile livestreaming, YouTube still commands significant traffic as the world’s leading video destination site, making it the default choice for many digital marketers. For now, brands with a substantial following on YouTube should consider taking advantage of this update to connect with fans in a more spontaneous way, whereas other brands may consider teaming up with influencers to get their messages across with a sponsored live event.

 

Source: Marketing Land

Baskin-Robbins Gears Up For Super Bowl With In-App Promo

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Gearing up for the upcoming Super Bowl Sunday, Baskin-Robbins is aiming to drive more customers to try out its mobile app with a digital coupon for its Polar Pizza. The brand is hoping that by offering a discount for a popular party item it can cater to the football fans hosting Super Bowl parties and establish a mobile touch point. The app features a store finder that can help customers locate the nearest BR shop.

Moreover, Baskin-Robbins is also leveraging third-party weather data to deliver relevant messaging to customers in different locations. For example, the company would surface messaging in its digital channels to drive people to local BR locations when an unseasonably warm day occurs.

What Brands Need To Do
As brands continue to leverage mobile to reach local customers, it is important that they take big media events like the Super Bowl and local contextual data into account. Last October, IBM began to integrate weather data it acquired from The Weather Company into its marketing solutions so as to improve the relevance of targeted ads for its clients. With more and more contextual data at disposal, brand marketers will need to adopt a mobile-focused, data-driven strategy to reach customers in the right context at the right time.

 

Source: GeoMarketing

Hutch Shows What Your Room Could Look Like With Furniture You Can Buy Directly

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Hutch, a Los Angeles-based startup, is taking a mobile-native approach to disrupt the interior design and online furniture retail market. The Hutch app, available on both iOS and Android starting today, allows users to submit a picture of their living room or bedroom and receive virtual makeovers by swiping through a variety of decor themes, ranging from Boho to Urban Industrial. The company developed a technology can automatically recognize the scale of the room and populate it with furniture items that are available for purchase directly from the app. Users can also submit a photo and wait a day to receive a customized decor plan from human interior designers.

What Brands Need To Do
This new app provides yet another example of the ongoing shift in designing mobile user experience, where the camera becomes a prominent input source that enables virtual product sampling. This also facilitate new business models where free virtual sampling and consultations function as the gateway for customer acquisition. Another recent example in this regard is the Dressing Room app that Gap officially launched earlier this week after previewing it at this year’s CES. The AR-enabled app lets online shoppers generate a virtual 3D based on their own measurements and try on different outfits. If they like how certain items look on the virtual mannequin, they can purchase them directly from the app. These two examples should provide some inspiration to brands looking to update their digital user experience to be more intuitive and convenient for mobile users.

 

Source: TechCrunch

Lego Launches Instagram-Like Social Network For Kids To Show Off Their Creations

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Aiming to stay engaged with its core customers even after they put down theor Lego pieces, Lego has created an Instagram-style social network for kids to show off their Lego creations. Dubbed “Lego Life,” the branded social platform lets kids aged 5-13 to share their creations in a kid-friendly, safe environment, and comment on others’ posts with custom Lego emojis.

What Brands Need To Do
This is the latest example of traditionally non-digital brands branching out into digital platforms and establishing mobile touch points in order to stay engaged with today’s connected consumers. A recent eMarketer study shows that 45% of kids 11 years old and younger in the U.S. are using a smartphone, and a 2016 survey shows that over half of children have created a social media account before the age of 12. Therefore, it makes sense for Lego to launch a social network so as to foster an online community of Lego-loving kids and keep them engaged with its products. With media time increasingly shifting to mobile devices, especially among the younger demographics, brands can greatly benefit from such mobile-native initiatives.

 

Source: The Next Web