IDG Contributor Network: Can mobile save the mall? Yes, but not how you think.

In a world where shopping malls are losing customers by the escalator-load to more convenient and deeper-inventoried digital options, one mall in a lightly populated Nebraska town is making some impressive progress in getting its shoppers to stick around.

That mall, the Nebraska Crossing Outlets, is using mobile marketing to not only pull shoppers back to the buildings, but also to sharply increase how much they buy once there. According to an intriguing piece in Stores Magazine, the mall boasts some compelling stats. After viewing a mobile offer, about 60% of shoppers visit the mall within four hours. That's an even more impressive number given that store officials are quite broad in how far people can be and still be considered local to the mall. "We have 4 million people in our trade area," the story quoted Rod Yates, a mall developer, saying, who "can drive to our center in 2.5 hours or less."

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