Retailers Ready to Embrace Mobile Marketing

Retailers admit they need to do more to fully embrace multichannel retailing but are increasingly ready to engage mobile footfall and loyalty strategies, says a new study.

The research, which was carried out by mobile solutions company 2ergo, asked c-suite level retail business leaders their opinion on multichannel retailing and the impact of key business challenges such as customer acquisition, loyalty and footfall.

The findings show that retailers know they are behind the curve in implementing a true multichannel retail strategy, with 98 per cent of those surveyed stating that their business could do much more to integrate the marketing of their commercial offerings.

However those surveyed were also clear in outlining their vision of how mobile marketing should be deployed to achieve this objective.

Of those surveyed, 42 per cent would use mobile marketing to directly drive footfall into store. Building customer loyalty and acquiring new customers came joint second (both on 24 per cent). Mobile commerce was the fourth largest priority with 11 per cent.

John Stevens, joint managing director at 2ergo, says: “Retailers recognise the need to ramp up their multichannel marketing strategies and adopting a strategy is the key. Mobile marketing is the tool which can enable this to happen.

“Despite the importance of a multichannel approach, physical stores still remain the most important channel with 60 per cent of respondents stating that bricks and mortar retail is their top priority.” 

Stevens says that mobile technology can be used to support multichannel retailing by acquiring new customers, driving footfall into stores, serving existing clientele, and building loyalty.

“Retailers recognise the opportunity and I believe 2011 will be the year that large and mid-market organisations will put in place full end-to-end mobile strategies to achieve all these goals,” he says.