It is safe to say that this will likely be the first holiday season where mobile will play a key role in multichannel shopping and buying.

While specific research is hard to come by, anecdotal evidence shows that consumers are using their mobile phones to receive SMS alerts of holiday promotions, click on mobile display ads and search links, search for store directions using maps, shop merchandise and check store timings on mobile Web sites and applications, and even buy on mobile.

In short, the mobile phone has become the perfect enabler of commerce across channels.

Given these circumstances, marketers and retailers should observe consumer behavior on mobile sites and applications. They should also note consumer appetite for receiving alerts and offers via SMS ? easily the most ubiquitous mobile marketing tool at a retailer?s disposal.

The holiday season typically kicks off after Thanksgiving. But it is hard to blame retailers for running their Christmas carols before Halloween, especially given this recessionary climate.

It is in these straitened times that retailers and marketer should use every marketing medium to encourage shoppers to open their wallets for relevant and pent-up purchases.

Indeed, the holiday season has become as much an occasion to shop for gifts for others as it has to stock up on items and services necessary for day-to-day living. It is no longer about extravagance, but more about substance.

With that in mind, marketers and retailers should approach the holiday season giving their marketing checklist a final look. Here are five mobile must-haves in most checklists.

Is the mobile advertising budget working at its optimum?
Don?t expect shoppers to have awareness of the retailer?s merchandise. This is the season of maximum clutter. Has the retailer made enough media buys on mobile sites for its display ads to appear on pertinent pages and during searches?

Buys on mobile sites are not that expensive compared with offline and online media. But it makes sense, if there is a decent marketing budget, to have a 360-degree approach to marketing by including mobile ads.

Work with a mobile ad network or directly with the publisher to run ads on targeted sites. Now wouldn?t it be sensible for Tiffany or Cartier to run their online ads not only on The New York Times? wired Web site but also the mobile site and applications, for example? They may not only reach loyal readers, but also a new audience that gets their news only on mobile.

Publishers should actively reach out to their current crop of advertisers and offer a mobile ad as a value-add to their advertisers. Charge them a fair fee, but also get advertisers used to the idea of holiday advertising and marketing on mobile. Then take that learning and apply it to better effect in holiday 2010.

Brands, for their part, must remember that shoppers are shopping not only magazines, newspapers, coupons, television, radio and the wired Web but also mobile sites and applications.

Consumers are also open to opting in to SMS loyalty programs if promised preferential treatment and discounts as a reward for giving business.

If anything, brands should not leave out mobile this holiday season.

While it is preferred that mobile gets its own line item in the budget, not every marketer may be at that stage. However, if there are some dollars left over in the budget, take a stab at mobile advertising. See how those 6x1 and 4x1 ads perform on targeted sites. That learning can be invaluable for next year.

Is the site mobile-friendly?
Most retailers? sites aren?t configured for a smartphone, let alone a feature phone. They can?t please everyone, but it would behoove retailers to have a Web site that renders well on smartphones such as the Apple iPhone, Motorola Droid and Palm Pre, as well as the numerous models from Samsung, HTC, Nokia and Research In Motion?s BlackBerry.

The site should enable visitors to shop for items, search merchandise and even complete a transaction.

Mobile sites are ideal, but the next best thing is to make sure that the retailer?s wired Web site is not cluttered but sticks to a two-column design with large images and type. Flash could be a problem on some mobile devices.

Shopping on the wired Web is second nature to most consumers nationwide. It is only a matter of time before they graduate to shopping on mobile sites and applications with increasing sophistication of software and device.

So why not spend a few dollars and make sure the site is optimized for mobile devices? Consumers will, sooner or later, expect the same consistency on the mobile Web that they get on the wired Web. Surprise them this holiday season with an experience they will remember ? positively ? the next time they are in the market for a product or service.

Not only should the mobile site be easy to search and navigate, it should also enable transactions. This should be no difficulty for retailers with a strong ecommerce site to encourage their online shoppers to also try their mobile sites if they are on the go.

Realizing the opportunity ahead, Amazon has opened its one-click technology to third-party retailers to use the service for a fee. Then all it takes is the Amazon email address and password for the transaction to be complete on any mobile commerce site.

Besides, there are plenty of other payment and transaction options out there, including MasterCard, Visa, PayPal, Google Checkout and IBM?s Websphere.

The mobile commerce sales might be incremental or a channel-shift ? it doesn?t matter as long as it?s within the same retail brand.

Is there an application for that?
It?s become fashionable in certain circles to look down on applications. Don?t listen to the naysayers. Applications are here to stay as a unique feature of the mobile universe.

This holiday season, it would have made tremendous sense for deep-pocketed retailers and brands to have launched holiday applications. They could have used traditional media to promote downloads.

Why applications? Because a repeatedly used downloaded application is a badge of loyalty worn proudly by mobile consumers. Applications are push-creatures, while sites are pull. Each serves its own purpose and, quite often, complement in the marketing and sales process.

A mobile application almost replicates the retailer?s weekly circular. Why not turn that weekly circular into an application of its own? Imagine the repeat traffic each weekend, especially in the grocery and electronics categories.

Apple has more than 100,000 applications in its App Store, Google more than 10,000 in its Android Marketplace and BlackBerry AppWorld more than 2,500. Add to that the applications in the Palm Catalog, Nokia Ovi store and GetJar?s 50,000-plus.

These are sizable numbers that serve more than 40 million smartphone users nationwide ? those consumers with the deepest pockets, or at least the propensity to adopt technology to lead more efficient work and personal lives.

Sooner or later, there will be more smartphones in use than basic phones. Retailers and brands must make sure their applications work well enough with a smaller group if they are to withstand the stress of traffic when the majority of phones will be smart and consumers smarter.

Is the SMS loyalty program up and running?
Truly, there is little excuse for retailers not to launch an SMS program ? bar the delay in carrier provisioning of common short codes.

While brands, agencies and retailers can shelter under several excuses for mobile sites, applications, video and coupons ? not everyone has a smartphone, screens are too small, discomfort with sharing credit card details ? there is no backing out from SMS.

Indeed, SMS is the only ubiquitous mobile marketing tool, sent and received through 99 percent of devices in circulation nationwide.

Any retailer worth its salt should have an SMS program that ties into its overall loyalty efforts. Offer incentives to store customers to double-opt-in to the loyalty program ? with a confirmation on the spot ? and begin building an SMS database. That?s how retailers such as Gap built their online database ? by offering $10 off for an email address while the customer was at checkout.

SMS is not complicated. It serves to alert customers and prospects to ongoing and upcoming sales, store openings and arrival of merchandise. It serves as an ideal coupon-delivery mechanism, albeit critics get their knickers in a twist over obvious challenges such as delayed checkout, mishandling of the mobile phone, fraud and what not. Whatever. There are two sides to every coin.

Retailers who haven?t already done so should quickly acquire a short code. The Common Short Code Administration is offering a 10 percent discount for the holidays.

Yes, the SMS program most likely won?t go live this holiday season, but at least a program can be put together for post-holiday marketing overtures.

Any retailer with a wired and mobile site, catalog, stores, mobile application and toll-free number should have a short code for SMS marketing.

SMS is a valuable tool in any loyalty marketing effort, sitting alongside the email and mailing addresses as the identifying mark of a hand-raiser who wants continuous engagement with the brand or retailer.

Don?t forget to measure and analyze mobile holiday 2009
There?s no point in expending this time, effort and budget if there?s no proper mechanism in place to measure and analyze the mobile work.

It is not too late to sign up for a mobile analytics service or to install tracking software.

What can be measured: clicks on display ads and activity beyond, downloads of applications and post-download activity, and opt-ins in an SMS program and coupon redemption. Also, brands and retailers can measure activity on mobile sites, and searches and transactions occurring from visiting traffic.

So it is a myth when some say that mobile cannot be measured. It can and it is, just the way wired Web activity is. There are certain constraints, but those will go away as mobile works its kinks out of the system.

It bears repeating: Only a proper analysis of holiday mobile marketing and commerce will lead to rightful budgetary allocation in 2010.

Knowing that the consumer has arrived, shopped and left is not merely enough. Knowing they did what they did, why they did, when, for how long and for how much is key to a successful mobile holiday.

The evidence of mobile-consumer activity is there, but make sense of it for remarketing. It will be the holiday gift that keeps on giving.