It’s the holidays and the mobile wallet is getting fat. In the US Walmart and Mattel have come up with a very cool mobile enabled virtual store marketing campaign.
The brands have created a series of ground breaking virtual stories that people can look at, pick a product they want and scan the QR code that matches their chosen product into their mobile and then pay for it. It even gets delivered free to your door.
All without visiting a toy shop.
Walmart can see where the market is going and it’s going mobile. They are determined to take a piece of the cake and ensure that any non- Walmart going customer is going to visit one of their virtual stores instead.
It’s the logical next step to a pop up store. Why do you even need the cost of a pop up store if all you need is a poster with your products on, linked qr codes and a mobile. As long as your M commerce solution is working you can have 1,000 virtual stores without the need to build any actual stores and cover any country.
This not only eliminates retail space costs from rent to maintenance it also eliminates staff and all associated costs. You need many less staff to work in a warehouse where customer service skills are not needed than you do in a retail store.
Think Amazon but without the need to go on line. Everything is there for you as long as the adverts are targeted in the right way. In this example Barbie is every girl’s dream xmas pressie and Walmart’s mobile enabled virtual store will ensure that your princess shall get her princess and all without the queues and the hassle of actually having to go the store and queue.
Simple and inevitably the future of retail. The costs and the ROI stack up like no other retail outlet ever could. Stores like this are perfect for xmas time when it’s all about the ROI on space and speed of movement in store to drive up seasonal sales.
Being able to put posters in every conceivable location that a target customer may come across from underground/subways to bus stations, coffee shops to train stations means dramatically increasing reach and driving up sales all for the cost of a poster.
Once a retail trial works for xmas brands can role this out for other seasonal peaks from Valentine’s Day to Chinese New Year and in places where holidays close stores these virtual mobile stores become 24/7 stores.
Just like the web’s busiest retail day is the day when people are giving but can’t shop in places like the UK, Christmas Day virtual mobile stores can compliment an on line e-tail strategy by targeting people who can’t shop on line but can shop on the move and on mobile.