Don’t take your eye off retail
January 22, 2008
Mickey Alam Khan is editor in chief of Mobile Marketer
Have companies made mobile’s case to retailers? Not if you attended the National Retail Federation’s annual show last week – an impressive gathering of 17,000 retail executives who were still goggle-eyed with store-based technologies to the exclusion of most channels.
Indeed, we were lucky to cover the one major session involving bookseller Borders Inc., JupiterResearch and search giant Google Inc. that even spent a few minutes on mobile’s application in retail (see story).
"There's a little bit of wait-and-see,” said JupiterResearch retail analyst Patti Freeman Evans. “We think there's an opportunity here and we're informing customers, but the actual sales are down the road."
So retailers have yet to buy into the promise of mobile. It’s hard to blame them. They’re still coming to grips with e-commerce and integrating store and catalog operations with online. Adding mobile to the mix will not move the continental plates faster.
But the industry has to start somewhere.
Mobile has several applications in the retail sector, albeit all requiring extensive integration of technology. The easiest application is coupons. Booksellers and supermarket and grocery chains as well as restaurant and consumer packaged goods businesses should be approached. They’ve got the infrastructure in place for print and online coupons and a mobile extension should be little bother.
Asking permission to text offers and alerts in the travel sector is another opportunity. Granted, the Department of Commerce and several organizations don’t rank travel under retail. But it is retail activity. And travel is a highly price-sensitive business. So it would make sense to keep opted-in consumers informed about the latest deals.
The Borders executive at the NRF conference in New York saw mobile’s potential.
"We're looking at the mobile as this PC you carry in your pocket, and if it's useful to the customer then you get loyalty and you get sales," Kevin Ertell, vice president of e-business for Borders, said at a session.
One piece of advice: whatever you do with retail, don’t expect the consumer to walk too far. In other words, the installation of applications shouldn't be too complicated. Also, it should have broad use.
So deals with carriers to get retail applications pre-installed with handsets are a better option. Tie-ins with retailers are also another way to win consumer acceptance. And don’t forget to exhibit at the upcoming retail and e-commerce shows. You’ll get a lot of wide-eyed attention.