Guess Updates App To Keep Customers Coming Back
Company hopes newsfeed, loyalty integration, and mobile wallet capabilities will encourage customers to return to the app
While many retailers have apps and a tech-savvy customer base willing to download them, it is always a struggle to keep customers engaging with an app. In fact, one expert from Appboy, Mark Ghermezian, says nearly 50 percent of app users stop using the app one month after downloading; 65 percent cease engaging with an app within three months. However, Guess has found a way to keep its app relevant to its young, easily distracted customer base. The company has recently updated its app to include a new loyalty program and a newsfeed, which provides customers with customized messages, event notices, behind the scenes videos, and exclusive shopping offers. Like many other retailers, the company has also linked its loyalty program with the app so that customers are able to connect to their Guess List account and view their loyalty information, as well as keep offers, receipts, and gift cards in a mobile wallet.
As more and more stores begin to investigate mobile wallets, this move can help Guess encourage its customers to begin using their smartphones as a method of payment in-stores. Especially since their customer base is, as Ghermazian says, “the young and hip,” the brand could see more success encouraging mobile payments and gain ground in the mobile charge. As this young customer base is more tech-savvy and dependent on their smartphones, there’s a good chance they’ll be interested in using their phones for in-store payments, in addition to the typical browsing. Those who are not loyalty members are still able to use the app to find stores, browse Guess products, and shop, considering the in-app newsfeed will provide them with all the relevant information they might need to make a purchase, and it will put it all in one place so customers won’t need to search around for it.
To draw attention to the app’s new offerings the company reached out to its customers via SMS to encourage those who hadn’t already downloaded the app to do so.
Read: Loyalty Programs In The Consumer Age
For those that are already members of the company’s loyalty program, Guess began offering loyalty points for those customers who engaged with Guess on Facebook. This particular social media channel has been an important method of engaging with the brand’s customer base over the last year. According to social media director for Guess Watches, Tarra Del Chiaro, the brand’s watch business has tried to go beyond just using images and product announcement posts. According to Del Chiaro, the brand sought out its brand ambassadors on Facebook, “gifted the ambassadors with products and let them tell our marketing story in their own voice… It’s not an in-your-face marketing push strategy, we’re pulling the users in with content that they can relate to because it’s a girl or guy that looks just like them wearing our watch.”
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