Retail merchandising execs tapping into mobile holiday marketing

The number of retail chief marketing officers (CMOs) using mobile in their holiday marketing keeps growing.

According to the new BDO Retail Compass Survey of CMOs, 65% of 100 retail CMOs surveyed will tap into mobile, up from 49% in 2014 and the third straight year of growth. And of those using mobile, 34% will focus most heavily on delivering mobile coupons. Respondents plan to focus 12% of their marketing efforts on mobile technology.

More than half of those surveyed (60%) are familiar with the concept of an enhanced omnichannel approach, and a little more than a third (37%) of those respondents report adjusting their marketing strategy to provide customers with a cohesive experience across channels.

The top strategy, cited by nearly all retailers (98%) who are at least slightly familiar with omnichannel and have changed their marketing strategy in response, is relying on consistent pricing across channels to grow customers’ satisfaction, followed by consistent promotional strategies (77%) and expansion of delivery options (63%).

A growing majority of retailers (89%, up from 72% the prior year) find it challenging to manage the vast amount of customer data available as a result of an omnichannel strategy. For the third year in a row, effectively using consumer data for marketing is the top data challenge retailers face (37%), and surprisingly, cited slightly more than five times more than managing customer privacy concerns or potential data breaches (7% each).

As retailers’ concerns around managing customer privacy worries and the risk of data breaches shrink, so too do their thoughts on the number of risks related to these cybersecurity matters. Three times as many retailers in 2015 (15%) than in 2014 (5%) believe their risk has declined.

In addition, the vast majority of retailers (78%) will use social media as another way to connect with customers this holiday season. Social media will primarily serve as a deals and discounts delivery mechanism (90%), followed closely by offering exclusive promotions and customer service, which tied at 81% each. Lastly, as “buy buttons” grow in popularity as a sales conversion tool, click-to-buy will be used by more than one-in-four retailers (27%) on their social media platforms.