In a briefing at the National Retail Federation Convention & Expo Tuesday, Cisco made the case for why retailers can't consider a mobile strategy optional any longer. Retailers who aren't at least experimenting with text-messaging campaigns and basic e-commerce on a mobile platform are already behind the curve, Cisco argued.
"Mobility is not a new topic. But the productivity revolution that mobility represents has just begun," said Jon Stine, a director of Internet business solutions at Cisco. "This is not a tide. Tides go out. This is a wave. And retailers are standing on the beach."
"Three things are coming together: easy-to-use devices; consumer-friendly, two-way services; and connectivity that means you can have a home broadband experience on a mobile device. This is a significant tipping point as to why mobility is something retailers should consider," said Lisa Fretwell, a director of Internet business solutions at Cisco. "We're moving from [a point] where the consumer is in a retailer's environment to where the retailer is in a consumer's environment."
Stine and Fretwell described three major benefits of retailers who maximize their use of mobile technology: It's a way to deliver productivity, a way to transform the customer experience and a way to create new business models. Eventually, they said, a customer's mobile device and retailer's mobile strategy will combine everything from unified communications to RFID and 3-D scanning to make shopping assistance easier, drive brand loyalty and transact business using contact-less payments.
Stine said that a retailer who takes full advantage of the mobility wave gains access to opportunities through which that retailer could see increases of as much as 19 percent net margin in three years. And yet, he said, only 2 percent of retailers in the United States have Web sites enabled specifically for mobile devices.
"Is it possible that this [a mobile device] will be the most important piece of real estate in retail? Yes," Stine said.
Consider, he added, that mobile devices among many other functions enable customers to check prices, talk to others and learn all they want about a particular brand and its competition from anywhere.
"Amazon is not just fighting against you on a PC in the next bedroom; they are in your store, talking to your customers," Stine said. "Mobility changes the paradigm. Whereas before we, as retailers, asked the consumers to come to our band -- location, location, location -- then we asked them to find our Web site -- location, location, location via Google -- now, it is possible for your brand to go with them. The brand is their shopping buddy."
Stine said that getting a mobile strategy in place means retailers need to be able to answer the following questions:
How mobile is your target consumer? Where and how will mobility create value? Where will mobility enhance brand differentiation? Who will be your new partners in mobile retailing?
One of the less obvious benefits is how a mobile strategy for retailers also creates new opportunities for vendor partnership. Think of any place your brand could appear, Stine said, including in cars.
"In the car, your dashboard is a screen," he explained. "If [customers] get in their car and are greeted by your competition, you don't have a chance."
