A new report from Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project suggests 46 percent of American adults owned smartphones as of February 2012, lending further credence to recent research from Nielsen that made a similar observation.

Given the sheer number of people who own these devices, retailers need to incorporate smartphones into their store operations when possible. Tom Nawara, vice president of digital strategy and design at online marketing firm Acquity Group, told Internet Retailer that mobile adoption should no longer be a question of "if." Rather, it is one of "when."

"For several years we’ve been saying it's 'the year of mobile.' It is time to put that phrase away and understand that mobile is here to stay and simply one part of an overall omni-channel strategy retailers need to embrace," Nawara explained. "… The question for retailers can no longer be, 'Should we include mobile in our mix?' It has to be, 'How do we most effectively build mobile experiences into our omni-channel plans?'"

Walgreens recently began leveraging phones as coupon distributors. When users check in to a store, a coupon or discount will be delivered straight to their phone.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Thursday, March 1st, 2012 at 9:23 am .