Recent research* found one in 10 retail searches come from a mobile device and that mobile retail search grew 168 per cent in Q3 of 2011 compared with the same quarter in 2010. IBM reported that mobile sales over the Thanksgiving weekend had surged to 9.8 per cent in November 2011 from 3.2 per cent in the same period the previous year.

In this multi-channel landscape, there are three inter-connected areas to address in the race for the consumer.
 

• The first is sofa browsing – people’s habits have changed. They watch TV while browsing on their tablet or checking social networking sites.  The consumer journey may well begin here, but not necessarily processed to transaction before a visit to the store. Equally a journey might start by a visit to the store, and end with a purchase made sitting on the sofa and taking delivery at home.

• The second involves harnessing the near-store experience and targeting prospects with specific communications to inform and draw them in with offers and promotions.

• The third, the in-store destination, should not stop just because the customer leaves or does not immediately make a purchase. Barcode scanners allow browsers to gain more information about products and add to ‘wishlists’ to buy at a later date or share with a contact list to highlight future birthdays etc. This data must be made available across the customer’s range of tech kit from smartphone to tablet to desktop.

These three areas are highly inter-connected, a purchase can be initiated at any point of the three and proceed to completion.  This, in turn, needs to be integrated into loyalty and retention campaigns.  Customers are not as loyal as they once were which is reflected in their buying habits, not only with retailers but also with operators and manufacturers.  So in a world of fragmented operating systems such as Android and iOS, it is critical for brands and retailers to offer a customer experience which straddles all tech touch points so that they can do all things wherever they are, whilst staying in touch with the brand.

*British Retail Consortium Google Online Retail Monitor