With M&S announcing that its domestic and overseas expansion plans rest firmly on a multi-channel foundation, most other retailers admit they need to do more to fully embrace multichannel retailing but are increasingly ready to engage mobile footfall and loyalty strategies to make this happen, suggests a new study by 2ergo, a mobile business and marketing solutions provider.
The findings show that retailers resoundingly admit they are behind the curve in implementing a true multichannel retail strategy with 98% telling 2ergo that their business could do much more to integrate the marketing of their commercial offerings. However those surveyed were also very clear in outlining their vision of how mobile marketing should be deployed to achieve this objective.
Of those surveyed, 42% would use mobile marketing to directly drive footfall into store. Building customer loyalty and acquiring new customers came joint second (both on 24%). Mobile commerce was the third largest priority with 11%.
John Stevens, Joint Managing Director at 2ergo, comments: “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% of respondents stating that bricks and mortar retail is their top priority. The good news for adopters of mobile marketing is that mobile technology can be used to support multichannel retailing by acquiring new customers, driving footfall into store, 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 and more.
