Single Touch reports accelerated mobile messaging volume growth

Single Touch Systems, a technology based mobile media solutions provider, has announced that its mobile messaging volume, which is a key business metric that drives revenues, has been growing at an increasingly accelerated pace.



Single Touch generates a portion of its operating business revenues by sending SMS text messages including reminder messages to customers of some of the largest retailers in the U.S. and U.K. Each message sent generates incremental revenues for Single Touch.



At the end of 2012, Single Touch announced it had sent a cumulative 500,000,000 mobile messages on behalf of its retail clients. During the quarter ended June 30, the company sent 75 million messages to mobile phone users, an increase of 21% from 62 million messages sent in the same period of 2012. Cumulative messaging volume on June 30 was approximately 675,000,000 — a 35% increase over the 500,000,000 messages reported in Dec. 2012.



Accelerating growth in message volume for Single Touch is partially driven by the company's recently implemented mobile messaging programs in the U.S. and U.K. Single Touch's mobile messaging programs come at a pivotal time for retailers, as mobile is becoming a crucial tool when it comes to foot traffic. InsightExpress found that 82% of consumers have used a mobile phone in a store and 17% have shown a mobile phone picture of an item to a sales clerk. Mobile usage is becoming engrained into the process of in-store shopping. Instead of a one-way product promotion, the opportunity is for a two-way conversation between the mobile marketer and their mobile customer.



Single Touch is seeing an increase in messaging in anticipation of the holiday shopping season including its delivery of reminder messages for holiday lay-a-way programs at retailers. These programs are typically supported by integrated marketing campaigns. During Sept. alone, Single Touch has already eclipsed the number of mobile messages sent for lay-a-way programs during the entire holiday season of 2012. Single Touch's retail messaging in the U.K. is yielding higher than expected adoption rates as well.



"There is a significant opportunity for Single Touch to assist more retailers with their in-store sales and in-store customer interactions. In this digital age, with 90% of retail sales still happening in stores, the mobile device is emerging as a very influential device in the shopper's decision making process as a direct communication tool," said Single Touch president and CEO James Orsini. "Increased messaging volume is a key metric for our business and we are pleased to see our growth rate for this metric accelerating. We expect this trend will favorably impact our fiscal 2013 financial results."



According to recent report by Deloitte, in 2012 mobile influenced 5% of all retail store sales in the U.S., representing approximately $159 billion in sales. This influence is estimated to grow to 17% to 21% of sales in 2016, which would translate into $628 million to $752 million in retail store sales that are influenced by the mobile phones.