March 2015 Integrated Solutions For Retailers
As retailers struggle to execute their own mobile strategies, consumers aren’t waiting around. Here’s how to catch up with — and capitalize on — the smartphone’s influence.
The ubiquity of the smartphone is far from understated. We’ve all seen the stats — some 2 billion people own and use them worldwide (eMarketer), and they use them for far more than placing and receiving calls. According to Pew Research, a full 81 percent of adult smartphone owners use their phones primarily to send or receive text messages, 63 percent use them to go online, and 34 percent of those users pull out their phones to go online more often than they use any other device, including desktop and laptop computers.
It’s no wonder that, as retailers fumble around with the deployment of associate-held mobile clienteling and POS devices, consumers are taking matters into their own hands. Your customers aren’t just accepting the role their smartphones are playing in the shopping experience; they’re also pushing you to engage their smartphones, forcing adoption of digital wallet acceptance, mobile loyalty programs, and more.
