Let’s face it, the golf industry is lagging far behind in mobile commerce. The mobile app of most golf clubs provides only very basic services (e.g. tee time booking, weather).
Meanwhile, App Annie State of Mobile 2021 study found:
- Daily time spent on mobile applications: 4,2 hours per user (=20% YoY growth);
- Mobile ad spend is $240B (=26% YoY growth);
- New app downloads: $218B (=7% YoY growth);
- Americans spend 8% more on their mobiles than watching live TV (3,7 hours/day)!
- Even Baby Boomers & Generation X spend more time on their mobiles: 30%.
- 30% YoY – time spent on shopping apps
The COVID-19 pandemic only accelerated the process/trend where consumers are migrating more of their physical needs onto mobile. Adobe found that we spent $188,2 Billion via mobiles in 2020.
Everybody with a smartphone is a potential customer for golf clubs (too). The golf industry must capitalize on mobile commerce as soon as possible!!
What is worth following too is the growing popularity of social & live shopping (see these features of Pinterest & Instagram). This could help you to improve your pro-shop’s sales figures.
Technavio predicts that the global social commerce market size is poised to grow by USD 2.05 trillion during 2020-2024.
After reading all these mobile commerce insights, it is crystal clear to you how much growth potential there is in this for your golf clubs. Unfortunately, most of the current golf club mobile applications are not able to take advantage of mobile commerce’s benefits.
It was a smart initiative in 2018, Pebble Beach Resorts‘ virtual concierge service to help their guests and members to have a much more meaningful experience. The mobile application was developed in cooperation with IBM Watson.
If I were Pebble Beach Resorts I would add mobile commerce features to their mobile application to generate a new revenue stream for the resort.
So far, I have only found mobile commerce solutions of Gallus Golf offered exclusively for golf clubs.
Now let’s see how the Troon mobile app has improved since the previous edition!
Troon mobile app in 2021 vs mobile commerce
The new Troon App includes the following features:
- The ability to book tee times at hundreds of Troon-affiliated golf courses around the world.
- A worldwide directory of Troon-affiliated facilities.
- Custom personalization, giving users the option to select at set their home course.
- Enhanced on-course GPS experiences powered by Best Approach.
- Scorecards to track and score rounds at Troon-affiliated courses.
- The ability to manage Troon Rewards and Troon Card accounts with facial recognition for quick return access.
- The latest news from the golfer’s home course and Troon.
- Quick access to customized golf vacation packages from Troon Golf Vacations. + integrate Troon Rewards too.
- Instant notifications on special offers, activities, and events….
What Troon could have done more?
The first seven features are pretty basic. What is interesting is the 8th feature. What Troon could have done more is utilizing that massive customer data at their disposal to bring personalization to the highest level.
It would also be a great solution if their mobile application could sense the location of the golfer and provide highly relevant contextual services and information. For similar reasons, I recommended using beacon technology in pro-shops in 2015.
Where is the integration with social media to spread the experience with like-minded people?
Customer experience vs mobile commerce
What I’m still wondering is how will Troon embed its app into the customer journey of its clients/customers. Mobile apps are one of the best channels to engage with guests before, during, and after their stay.
Before you would simply call a mobile marketing agency to develop your golf club’s new mobile application try to figure out how a mobile application can help you to achieve your business goals and enhance customer experience.
If you need any help, please feel free to contact me: mikibreitner@gmail.com