Retailers to spend $55 billion annually on mobile marketing by 2015
Annual spend by retailers on mobile marketing will reach $55 billion by 2015, almost double the $28 billion level expected this year, according to a new study.
Retailers are increasingly using mobile devices as a touchpoint on each stage of the retail lifecycle, which is fuelling the rapid growth of marketing in this channel, shows a new report from Juniper Research.
The report found that the development of the mainstream tablet market has created new opportunities for brands seeking to enhance engagement with consumers. With e-commerce migrating to mobile and nomadic devices, ad-spend on both tablets and smartphones is continuing to grow strongly as retailers, notably in North America and Western Europe, migrate their own spend to digital in general, and mobile in particular, said Juniper.
Similarly, the report observed that mobiles were driving retail footfall through coupons, with couponing apps becoming an increasingly popular mechanism of distribution and coupon storage.
It also highlighted the increasing trend towards the development of additional distribution channels, such as augmented reality and NFC, as mobile becomes increasingly integrated into in-store retail strategies.
However, the report cautioned that while retailer engagement with mobile channels had increased dramatically, many had still not optimised their sites for mobile browsing, registration or payment.
According to report author Dr Windsor Holden: 'If retailers truly want to maximise the mobile monetisation opportunity, then optimisation is critical. If you are using mobile advertising for consumer acquisition, you need to push users to a site with which they can comfortably interact; retailers that fail to respond to consumer demand will fall behind.'
The report also found that brands are increasingly seeking to integrate campaigns across mobile social networks such as Foursquare and Facebook. It warned that brands and retailers need to ensure that mobile ads are frequency capped to prevent overexposure, and irritated consumers.
