Cover Story: Annual Trends Survey 2011

Truly the Year of Mobile?
How many times have you heard an industry "expert" say this is the year of mobile? It seems like the last three years have all been pegged with that title. But does the data bear out the claim? The answer is no, at least according to the cross-channel retailers who responded to our survey. Mobile has yet to obtain the widespread adoption many have predicted for the channel. That's not to say it won't happen, it just hasn't happened yet.

Nearly 95 percent of respondents didn't use mobile QR codes in 2010, and while that percentage is forecasted to lower to 75 percent this year, a full three-quarters of respondents won't make use of this "hot" technology. Granted, a good portion of respondents don't have a brick-and-mortar presence, which does skew the percentage higher to some degree, but the fact of the matter remains that mobile isn't playing a primary role in most retail businesses — at least for now.

Retailers' spending on mobile will rise in 2011 — specifically, respondents plan to increase their spending on mobile sites by 33 percent and on mobile applications by 28 percent — but the increase still lags spending growth in more traditional marketing channels such as website enhancements (61 percent), email (53 percent), search engine optimization/search engine marketing (47 percent), online display ads and targeted landing pages (both 39 percent), and affiliate marketing (36 percent). Even relative newcomer social media will see a bigger percentage of retailers' budgets — 55 percent of respondents said they'll increase their spending on the channel in 2011 — than mobile.

While not going all in with mobile compared to other marketing channels (e.g., social media), retailers won't be decreasing their spending on the medium, either. Only 8 percent of respondents said they'll decrease their spending on mobile applications in 2011, and 7 percent said they'll cut their budget for mobile websites this year. The majority of respondents are taking a wait-and-see approach when it comes to mobile marketing/commerce — at least when it comes to their money. Sixty-four percent said they'll spend the same on mobile applications in 2011 as they did in 2010, while 60 percent plan to spend the same amount on their mobile website this year vs. last year.

Not surprising to most, offline media, particularly print, will see the biggest decrease in marketers' budget spend. Twenty-one percent of respondents said they'll decrease their promotional spending on print ads in 2011, and another 20 percent plan to cut spending on their print catalog. Direct mail will see a 15 percent drop in promotional spending as well. In contrast, the online marketing channel forecasted to see the biggest decrease in promotional spending in 2011 is video, with just 10 percent of respondents planning to make cuts in this area.

2011 Challenges
Customer acquisition is the challenge most respondents are facing right now, according to the survey, with 53 percent citing difficulties in this area. Building customer loyalty was a distant second in this category, with 26 percent of respondents naming it as the top challenge they're facing right now. Other challenges included managing multiple marketing channels (17 percent) and website analysis (16 percent). But despite these challenges, perhaps the best news to come out of the survey was that 91 percent of respondents said they believe they'll meet their revenue expectations in 2011.