Although retail stores still account for the majority of sales, shoppers are increasingly using different channels to make purchases
A study by mobile technology providers 2ergo has shown that retailers are not fully exploiting the opportunities provided by multichannel retailing. 2ergo asked just under 1,000 senior retail marketing decision makers their opinions of multichannel retailing. A huge 98 percent of respondents stated that they felt they were behind in implementing a strategy, although most respondents did understand how to use marketing techniques to integrate commercial offerings.
When asked their priority for mobile marketing, 42 percent said that they would like to use the technique to encourage shoppers back into retail stores. Customer loyalty and acquiring new customers were equally important, each chosen by 24 percent of respondents as the most important issue. Another factor was mobile commerce, with 11 percent selecting this as a priority.
Despite the need for multichannel retailing being recognised, 60 percent of respondents said that traditional retail stores were still their main priority. While 80 percent of retail transactions still occur in stores, many major high street chains are seeing slumps in sales meaning that online channels must not be ignored – over £5 billion was spent online in the UK in January 2011, and the online retail industry is expected to grow 10 percent every year until 2015 at the earliest, according to Forrester, a market research company.