James Tenser

Retail Customer Experience: Why Mobile Coupons Are Not the Answer

August 12, 2010

FROM RETAILWIRE:
What people really want, but don't know how to ask for, are ways to save money that are relevant to them. They know about coupons, so they think in those terms. Do you agree that mobile coupons are not the answer? If so, what do you think is the answer?      [more...]

Echoing Gene a bit, I must say I think this dialog is focused too much on a narrow bit of terminology and too little on how best to deliver value to shoppers.

Mobile "coupons" need not (and should not) attempt to create a metaphor for the scanned paper experience on an electronic device. I know early efforts prefer to display the bar code on the cellphone screen, but I consider this approach ludicrous. A digital device should communicate digitally with the retail POS, not via an analog work-around.

Now if we can drop the term "coupon" from this discussion and substitute "offer" or "incentive," maybe we have a chance to pursue a value-added thought process about this area of innovation. The mobile phone is a very powerful shopper touchpoint. It's up to us innovators to apply its potential in ways that are relevant to the shopper's needs and that take appropriate advantage of the inherent properties of the channel. Both are necessary.