• by Dan Hodges , Op-Ed Contributor, December 22, 2014

The past year has seen significant progress in the world of proximity marketing, along with changes in consumer behavior and progress in mobile payments.
 
The Rise of Proximity (2014)

1. Proximity matters: Proximity powered apps or operating systems, such as Samsung’s Proximity, deliver notifications that create a direct relationship between brands and consumers. The power of mobile is in the relevancy of the message delivered to the consumer. Marketers discovered this power at scale in 2014.

2. Behavioral changes: The use of apps for shopping, travel, dining, maps and many more categories has fundamentally changed consumer behavior and expectations. Consumers have been trained by using smartphones apps to get what they want, when they want it. For example, when a shopper goes into a department store with a certain product in mind to buy and it is not there, consumer quickly become enraged.

Smart retailers have invested in store associate training and inventory systems to help ensure the customer need is met. Apps such as Uber, Open Table, Waze, Tripit raise the bar for every category in customer service and convenience, sooner or later.

3. Mobile Payments Gain Traction: Walmart reported that 70% of sales for Cyber Monday were on smartphones. Starbucks pick-up and place your order is just the beginning the shift to how consumers use smartphones. Brands that provide superior customer service, reduced purchase friction will be winners in the $142 billion mobile payment marketplace, according to the Forrester.
 
The Year of the Disruption (2015)

The new year will see increased disruption across many industries that have not embraced the new mobile customer journey.

1. Disruption: The emergence of Xiaomi from China in 2010, which has now become the 4th largest smartphone maker in the world, is another sign of a disruption at work. Xiaomi has replaced Samsung in China as the market leader

2.Smartphones will be the dominant platform to impact the customer journey: On a global basis, smartphone penetration is projected, per GSMA, to grow to 45% in 2015 from 38% in 2014. In the United States, smartphone penetration is projected to grow to 69% from 64.2% in 2014. The rise of smartphones in the United States is on the ascension and is projected to grow to 73% by 2020.

3.Erosion of traditional media such as cable TV networks and cable MSO’s will see increased audience erosion, due to increased fragmentation and shifting viewership and usage of mobile devices.