Retail marketing has embraced a number of strategies to take advantage of the popularity of mobile devices. From mobile apps to location-based advertising to payment options, merchants can offer their customers convenient resources through their personal gadgets to seek information and complete transactions. Recent studies have shown the while consumers in the United Kingdom frequently turn to their smartphones while shopping, retailers could do more to capitalize on mobile opportunities.

According to Cheil Worldwide's 2014 Agile Consumer report, over 50 percent of smartphone owners in the UK take out their devices while shopping in physical stores, eMarketer reported. Much of this activity is aimed at researching more information about products, checking prices or taking pictures of items they are thinking of buying, the source explained. However, only 17 percent of the survey respondents admitted to finding the product on another retailer's website and buying it there.

Although respondents indicated that they are likely to return to a store if it sent personalized promotions to their phones, another study showed that UK retailers haven't focused on optimizing their mobile strategies. As Retail Gazette explained, a Forsee survey revealed that mobile sites tend to lag behind their desktop counterparts in terms of user experience. Retailers with ecommerce software should prioritize their mobile engagement resources to address growing smartphone use.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Tuesday, March 4th, 2014 at 6:22 am .