Fighting the mobile retail war: How to meet customers every step of the way

The stakes are high in mobile retail, because suddenly more people are shopping on their mobile phone than ever before.

And with people using their phones more than desktops. the game has completely changed for the traditional giants of retail: From Walmart, to Target and BestBuy, everyone has to have a mobile site that appeals to mobile buyers.

This new landscape will be debated at next week’s MobileBeat –— July 8-9 in San Francisco — by a panel of Nicolas Franchet (Facebook), Susan Neal (The Men’s Wearhouse), Bridget Dolan (Sephora), and Babak Pahlavan (Google Analytics). Along with Ashu Garg, a venture capitalist at Foundation Capital who specializes in marketing technology investments, the panel will help us learn how leaders in retail and marketing are engaging with customers with valuable, personalized content to build brand loyalty and drive purchases.

At first, it seemed, Google appeared to have you everywhere: It had you when were signed in on your Android phone. It had you on your desktop at work, and then again while you used your tablet in the evening. And when you shopped, you might use its services too, perhaps even Google Wallet.

But then, two weeks ago, Amazon jumped in with its super buzzy 3D shopping-focused Fire smart phone.

Shopping is no longer restricted to inside the walls of the store or home; it is an omnichannel activity. To meet customer expectations, retailers must create an experience that flows seamlessly from mobile to desktop and to the brick-and-mortar store. How has mobile created a more personalized relationship between the consumer and retailer? How do retailers connect with customers across devices with a seamless experience?
Brands like Sephora leverage mobile apps to engage shoppers with messaging based on location and user profiles, in ways that other media hasn’t learned how to do yet, or allowed themselves to do. Facebook plays an important part of the mobile marketing landscape for such brands by providing refined targeting options.

Meanwhile services like Google Analytics help understand the multiple touch points where consumers experience the brand leading up to a purchase.

[Note: MobileBeat tickets are nearly gone. Grab yours before they sell out!]

Other topics we’ll be tackling at MobileBeat include personalization, programmatic advertising, seamless payments, customer retention, driving purchases in store, native advertising, targeting across devices, deep linking, mobile analytics tools, predictive apps, the Internet-of-things, wearables, and more.

Join 1,000 mobile execs, leading brands, analysts, developers, investors, and press for two days packed with high-value discussions, actionable lessons, exclusive announcements, and lots of networking.

We encourage you to secure your spot before the holiday, as tickets are very limited. You can register here.

Special thanks to the following industry leaders for supporting MobileBeat: Factual, Tapjoy, Criteo, AppLovin, Adtile, IBM and AT&T as Gold Partners; Flurry, AppMachine, HasOffers, Sequoia Capital, RadiumOne, SupersonicAds, Cirrus Insight, Tapsense, Appsflyer and App Annie as Silver Partners; AppDynamics, BlueStacks, Upsight, Cotap, Cail, New Relic, Splunk, GLOBO, Bitcasa and LifeStreet Media as Event Partners; Adenda, CommandIQ, Raw Engineering, Obelus Media, and Rumble as Nest Partners, and Bizzabo and VSC as Strategic Partners.