Monday, February 14, 2011

Mandates and Chellenges for Mobile Retail

During his keynote at Shop.org last fall, Urban Outfitters CEO Glen Senk said that "Mobile may ultimately impact the in-store experience more than it impacts the online experience.... We believe mobile technology will boost eCommerce, but I believe it will absolutely revolutionize the brick-and-mortar retail business," reports 1To1 Magazine.

The online magazine also quotes Josh Herman, multichannel marketing innovation leader at Acxiom, that "I think what we'll see this year is a focus on getting the mobile marketing infrastructure more closely tied to the rest of the marketing intelligence assets. This will help fortify spending in mobile marketing."

Carsten Thoma, President of Hybris U.S. and COO of Hybris Group, also sees mobile technology as vital to retailers, but cautions that many companies are uncertain how to get started, adding that companies are often saddled with legacy systems that make the integration of mobile technology difficult if not impossible. Concludes Thoma, the "complete fusion of offline and online in a seamless environment is the most important thing in 2012. I'm 100 percent sure that customers are expecting this experience."

Dave Lawson, Director of Mobile Engagement at Knotice, concurs, seeing 2011 as the year companies get more sophisticated with mobile, but concluding it won't be until 2012 that the technology will finally evolve to point where seamless execution becomes a reality.

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