Retailers see potential in mobile marketing

HAMPSHIRE, U.K. — Retailers are predicted to spend $55 billion on mobile marketing by 2015, which is almost double the $28 billion expected this year, according to a new study by Juniper Research.

The study, “Retail mCommerce: Mobile & Tablet Marketing, Advertising & Coupon Strategies 2013-2017,” found that the development of a mass tablet market had created new opportunities for brands seeking to enhance engagement with consumers. With e-commerce migrating to mobile and nomadic devices, ad spending on both tablets and smartphones is continuing to grow strongly as retailers migrate their own spend to digital in general, and mobile in particular.

The report found that mobiles were driving retail traffic through coupons, with couponing apps becoming an increasingly popular mechanism of distribution and coupon storage. It also highlighted the increasing trend towards the development of additional distribution channels – such as AR (augmented reality) and NFC (near field communications) – as mobile becomes increasingly integrated into in-store retail strategies.

But Juniper cautioned that while retailer engagement with mobile channels had increased dramatically, many had still not optimized their sites for mobile browsing, registration or payment.

“If retailers truly want to maximize the mobile monetization opportunity, then optimization is critical,” stated report author Dr. Windsor Holden. “If you are using mobile advertising for consumer acquisition, you need to push users to a site with which they can comfortably interact; retailers that fail to respond to consumer demand will fall behind.”

Other key findings from the report include:

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  Brands are increasingly seeking to integrate campaigns across mobile social networks such as Foursquare and Facebook; and

  
  


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  Brands and retailers need to ensure that mobile ads are frequency capped to prevent overexposure.