Editorial Articles

2ergo has undertaken research into multichannel retailing and mobile marketing, looking at how these complementary disciplines can work together to build loyalty and drive footfall. John Stevens, Joint Managing Director of 2ergo, shares his insight into the research and outlines his vision for mobile and multichannel retailing success.

Multichannel retailing is the biggest challenge faced by retailers today. Online sales are increasing and traditional bricks and mortar retail sales are under pressure. So retailers have to balance their business models, take advantage of the growth in e-commerce whilst avoiding the cannibalisation of store sales.

Finding this balance is tricky. Our research shows that 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.

We 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.

Behind the curve
98% of retailers admitted that their business could do much more to integrate their product marketing. 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%.

Their desire to build loyalty is well founded and many within the retail industry are worried about another recent study which showed that a fifth of all internet purchases now also involve prior in-store research.

They are worried because these customers will disregard existing loyalty models and instead browse a physical retail store, using their smartphones to find the same product elsewhere online at a discount.

The report adds fuel to existing concerns of falling revenues from bricks and mortar retail outlets. It seems that bricks and mortar outlets not only face the challenge of their own e-commerce presence cannibalising existing revenue streams but competition is coming from other specialist online only retailers too.

Stores and mobile marketing
Despite all the challenges, physical stores still remain the most important channel with 60% of respondents to our study 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.

John Stevens
Joint Managing Director, 2ergo