What Last Year’s Retail Trends Mean for 2012

What These Trends Mean for Retailers in 2012

• Web retail will probably soon comprise 20 percent of total holiday sales, Mulpuru forecasted.
• Deep discounts, deals and free shipping are a cost of doing business. The good news for retailers? These tactics are an accelerator to consumer e-commerce adoption.
• Email and search continue to drive traffic and conversions. This means that many retailers' Google budgets will be increasing, Mulpuru said.
• More mobile traffic means more mobile optimization of websites. Mobile analytics will remain a challenge for most retailers, however, Mulpuru noted.
• Retailers will struggle with evaluating the true return on investment for cross-channel investments. Companies are beginning to accept this as a cost of doing business - much like free delivery — Mulpuru said.
• Post-social media hype era seems to have arrived. Facebook isn't irrelevant, just smaller than retailers initially thought, Mulpuru said.
• Four companies - Amazon, Google, Facebook and Apple — loom over e-commerce. These sites are frequently gatekeepers to retail brands' traffic. The key is to follow their lead on simplicity, Mulpuru said. Focus on lower-hanging fruit that can be implemented quickly and easily that can have a positive effect on your bottom line — e.g., optimizing your site for mobile devices, offering customers the ability to write and review products. Device fragmentation necessitates a lowest common denominator approach to web design and development, Mulpuru advised.