Survey: Traditional retail circulars enjoying second life in digital media

CHICAGO — The majority of mobile users have looked at a retailer’s ad circular in the past 30 days, with nearly half of those viewing it within a mobile app, according to the findings of a recent study examining shopping behaviors of more than 11,000 mobile users. 


Retale, a permission-based mobile and digital company connecting shoppers with local retailers, and Placed, a provider of location insights and mobile ad intelligence, examined a wide range of shopping behaviors to better understand the impact of retailers’ ad circulars on purchasing decisions among mobile users.


 Data highlights for retailers include: 


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  Seventy-four percent of mobile users have looked at a circular in the last 30 days;


• 
  Of those users, 50% viewed circulars inside a mobile app;


• 
  Only 23% of the respondents who reported using print circulars prefer to stick exclusively with the printed format; and


• 
  Among those not using a circular in the last 30 days, but saying they will use one in the future, 60% prefer to use a digital one.

Even among those respondent who reported not having used a circular in the previous 30 days, 85% plan to use one in the future. 
 


“For the savvy retail marketing executive this is very good news: a familiar ad format, well known for driving in-store traffic, is now also increasingly being consumed across digital channels,” stated Retale president Pat Dermody.
 


Mobile And Digital Nearing Print Levels
 


The activities that shoppers report on digital circulars are similar to those long-held truths in the paper world. Among those who currently access digital circulars, almost 82% report they do so to plan shopping trips before heading out to the stores. Only 13% say that they access digital circulars while actually in a store, implying that digital circular use has the power to catalyze a store visit just like it’s paper ancestor. 
 


“The ability to measure online behaviors and map them to offline actions is changing the way retail attributes value to digital,” stated David Shim, founder and CEO at Placed. “The partnership between Retale and Placed enables retailers to quantify the true value of circulars – in-store visits.”
 


How users access digital circulars:

• 
  Just under 70% of respondents say they access a retailer’s website;


• 
  Fifty-three percent say they have downloaded a mobile app for a specific retailer; and


• 
  More than 31% have accessed digital circulars using a mobile app that aggregates weekly ads of multiple retailers.  


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A whopping 79% of those who use mobile aggregators cited “convenience” as the basis of their preference. 
 


With the announcement of the survey, Retale also launched a partnership with Placed. The collaboration will allow retailers to measure real world store visits from customers engaging with circulars inside the Retale app. Measuring more than 200 million locations a day, Placed provides an integrated view of digital behavior, physical location and the impact of media. 
 


Retale digitizes and aggregates weekly circulars for retailers throughout the United States. By delivering relevant ad promotions to mobile audiences throughout the country, Retale has become a leading permission-based mobile app for retailers partnering with more than 130 brands to-date.