Last month, the Wall Street Journal reported Apple was developing a mobile payment platform to leverage its iPhone and iPad user base and iTunes Store. This, coupled with Apple’s recent Touch ID payment emphasis and wireless payment patent application, prompted analyst Andre Mouton to speculate that the mobile payment market may be the company’s next big thing, according to Minyanville.com. Such a move would capitalize on Gartner’s expectation that the global mobile transaction market will grow 42 percent annually to encompass 448 million users spending $617 billion by 2016. For email marketing, these projections highlight why it makes sense to start integrating their campaigns with POS systems in order to better serve the growing mobile payment market.
More Targeted Mailing
Colorado restaurant chain MAD Greens uses its POS system to support targeted email coupon and special offer campaigns. Analysis of customer buying trends gets combined with geo-targeting information and other demographic data to create email marketing blasts customized for specific offers and audiences. Clicking on a link in the email enables customers to claim the offer. When the customer redeems the offer, the POS system uses a code to track the sale back to a customer database, providing information to support future sales campaigns.
This illustrates the potential of combining email marketing with a POS system that weds point-of-sales functionality to CRM capability. Integrated platforms, like NetSuite’s POS system, provide this combined functionality, enabling captured customer data to support targeted email offers and campaigns.
Streamlined Checkout
When customers respond to email offers, POS systems can streamline the checkout process, improving customer experience and thus increasing sales. Implementing an efficient POS system can speed up checkout lines by 50 percent, reducing the average waiting time to 1 minute, according to customer flow management company ESII. This improves staff efficiency by 35 percent. Meanwhile average shopping cart value also increases, rising by 400 percent when lines are accompanied by video screens announcing that checkouts are available.
Point-of-Purchase Sales Multiplication
Stores in markets such as the apparel industry are finding POS useful for delivering customer service to support sales, Infinite Peripherals Strategic Relationship and Program Manager Jennifer Brown reports. For instance, when a customer is considering a potential purchase, a sales associate supported by information from a digital database can come over to assist the shopper with checking inventory availability, selecting color options, or making accessory purchases. When this approach is combined with data on customer purchasing habits from an email marketing database, it creates opportunities for sales associates to offer customized upsell and cross-sell deals, multiplying revenue potential.
Repeat Business Opportunities
POS further enables initial point-of-purchase sales to be leveraged into follow-up email marketing opportunities. For instance, Valorie Reavis reports in Salon Today that the salon industry is using POS technology to collect customer data in order to send out customized email coupon offers. This strategy promotes repeat business, and can easily be adapted to soliciting email referrals from customers as well. For instance, such a coupon could be designed to offer a discount as a referral reward incentive.
