Annual Trends Survey 2013

New Challenges Ahead
While 39 percent of survey respondents feel customer acquisition is the No. 1 challenge their business faces (as it was for the past two years as well), only 4 percent feel customer retention is an issue. However, 11.8 percent of respondents have found competing on price to be a new challenge not to be ignored. This could be attributed to the influx of new retailing models introduced over the last year.

Other challenges respondents will be dealing with in 2013 include adapting retail marketing strategies to direct and online channels, SEO and SEM, and managing multiple marketing channels, which was cited by nearly 4 percent. Interestingly, only 2 percent of survey respondents find showrooming to be a challenge for their business. Respondents also seem to be unphased by issues with website analytics, operations and fulfillment, and database marketing, all of which were under 1 percent. In fact, sustainability (3.3 percent) and social media (2 percent) are greater concerns for retailers this year.

The Staying Power of Social Media
Although the majority of respondents said their primary use of social media is for customer engagement (32.9 percent), 24.3 percent use social platforms to generate sales, up 7 percent from last year. Various trends over the last year, including the growth in popularity of visual social platforms like Pinterest and Instagram as well as social gifting solutions, have helped retailers attain a new level of customer engagement and loyalty.

Less than 4 percent of respondents said the primary goal of their social media program is customer acquisition (3.9 percent), the same percentage that cited customer service. One of the more surprising findings is that even with multiple social platforms available, 9 percent of respondents still don't have a social media strategy.

Mobile Strategy?
Despite the fact that nearly 22 percent of respondents plan to spend more than 20 percent of their marketing budget on tablet apps this year, 37 percent of respondents don't have a mobile marketing strategy in place. Twenty-five percent of respondents said generating sales is the primary goal of their mobile marketing program, followed by consumer engagement (10.5 percent), driving web traffic (9.9 percent) and driving store traffic (9.9 percent). Mobile devices have now surpassed desktop PCs as the preferred way consumers shop on retailers' websites.