The showrooming trend shows no signs of letting up, leaving marketers responsible for creating an in-store experience that combines direct marketing with entertainment.

The mobile enterprise space is increasingly heating up since marketers want to connect with consumers through the one thing that they are sure to have on hand while shopping inside a store ? a mobile device. However, there is still a great opportunity for marketers to leverage mobile point-of-sale services with better merchandising and a deeper level of product information.

"Personalized visual merchandising in a high-touch environment will enable consumers to experience owning the product," said Tina Unterlaender, San Francisco-based director of mobile at AKQA. "We will go far beyond direct access to browse, explore and order products while in the store."

Here, AKQA's Ms. Unterlaender discusses what retailers can expect in the next iteration of showrooming and why mobile is taking off in the enterprise space. 

What do you expect the next wave of in-store and retail mobile deployment to look like? 
The showrooming trend will be refined to a highly sophisticated combination of entertainment and direct marketing. 

Personalized visual merchandising in a high-touch environment will enable consumers to experience owning the product. We will go far beyond direct access to browse, explore and order products while in the store.

I could imagine retailers reducing their footprint considerably, while increasing sales per square foot dramatically. We may finally achieve the balance between the instant gratification of purchase, and the hassle of schlepping your stuff through the city.

I believe we will also see a deeper level of product information displayed in a much friendlier way. 

Up until now, we simply offered a digital version of the same old product manual available in paper form. 

The advanced capabilities of modern devices allow us to bring a richer experience to consumers during the shopping experience.

Why do you think more enterprises are now wanting to use apps for their business?
Starting with the earliest iterations of cell phones, the cool toys were once deployed to enterprises first, then small businesses and finally consumers got to play with them. 

Somewhere along the way, the Internet happened, and the consumer-driven cycles of innovation typical in personal computing spread to the mobile world.

Now, consumers get the cool stuff first, and large-scale enterprises end up chasing the biggest trends in efficiency. 

The technology decision makers at large companies see their workers testing, then selecting applications that make their work more efficient and productive. 

This Darwinian process of allowing workers to determine the apps that yield the greatest benefits across laptops and mobility results in enterprise versions of those same apps.

What is the No. 1 challenge with enterprise apps?
Data security continues to be one of the most important challenges. 

Even though there are some new ways of data encryption, CIOs need to see improvement in order to be more comfortable opening up their servers.

Post-deployment servicing is a close No. 2. 

It's not enough to just build an app. Support strategies including help desks, distribution, continuous maintenance and further enhancements are needed. All these things are often overlooked.

What works best when it comes to developing enterprise and POS apps? And what does not work for marketers developing these apps?
True co-development with the internal customer and end user. A lot of companies make the mistake of providing apps to their employees without truly understanding their needs.

If an app doesn't provide added value or challenges or hinders day-to-day tasks, they will most likely not be used and the development effort was wasted. This is why the organic approach to app selection works. 

Add value, keep the app fresh and update features when appropriate. After all, this is a product with a lifecycle like every other product.

Final Take
Lauren Johnson is associate reporter on Mobile Marketer, New York