Despite a strong majority of retailers having a mobile strategy in place, the promise of mobile shopping has yet to ring true at the cash register, though it is steadily increasing, according to a new report from Forrester Research Inc.
According to “The State Of Retailing Online 2011: Marketing, Social, and Mobile” report for Shop.org, which polled 68 companies in the US, 91% of retailers said they had a mobile strategy in place or in development (up from 74% a year ago). Meanwhile 72% said they would increase spending on social networks this year over last year.
Encouragingly, the report notes that 21% of all mobile traffic is now coming from tablets, remarkable seeing as the first commercially successful tablet, the iPad, was only launched last year.
Having said that, the rest of the overall mobile traffic is a little disappointing, having not increased dramatically at all. Forrester says this could be down to lack of investment in site optimization, with only 48% of retailers admitting to having a fully mobile-optimized website. Meanwhile, 35% have launched an iPhone app, while 15% have both an iPad and Android app.
Forrester says the problem could also be that retailers have yet to figure out how to differentiate the consumer retail experience on a tablet as opposed to that on a smartphone.
When it comes to social shopping, however, retailers are more than ready to put their money where their mouth is and for good reason.
“Social networks ranked fourth on the list of successful customer acquisition sources, up significantly from last year,” writes the report.
Despite the belief in social media to offer a buying boon, Forrester says it remains to be seen what the ROI really is when it comes to social marketing. 62%percent of retailers said the returns on social marketing strategies were still unclear, and nearly the same percentage said the primary ROI from social marketing was “listening to — and gaining a better understanding of — customers.”
Sucharita Mulpuru, vice president and principal analyst for Forrester Research said that when it comes to mobile marketing for retail, businesses “should be working to increasingly integrate features and functionality into the physical store experience.”
He went on to say that while consumers may not be extensively exploring product information yet, “basic store information, transparent pricing, and easy checkout capabilities are likely to be the most pressing opportunities for most sites in the near term.”
