Mobility in Retail 2012: Application Across Verticals

Although it often seems like the mobility revolution in retail particularly is all about savvy consumers using smartphones to circumvent traditional retailing, the truth is that mobility is an equal opportunity employer and can serve as a model across verticals. Download this special report, produced by RIS and Mobile Enterprise, to get the latest on the technologies that are reshaping the retailing experience and beyond.

Opportunities exist for retailers to gain huge benefits through mobile deployments in stores and many of these will equal or surpass deployments for mobile websites and apps.

You have to hand it to Apple for selling 218 million iPhones since they were introduced five years ago. And you have to hand it to consumers for driving m-commerce sales up to an expected $17.5 billion this year despite the clumsiness of most mobile apps.

But when you put this into perspective, $17.5 billion is a tiny fraction of total
retail sales, which are expected to top $2.5 trillion in 2012. This means m-commerce represents less than one percent of total retail revenue. It will take many years before m-commerce breaks out of single digits.

Getting Ahead
Even so, this is no time for retailers or any applicable business to hold back on m-commerce investments. Many retailers are placing big bets on m-commerce today and early adopters are learning lessons they will need to know when m-commerce sales reach elevated levels.

For retailers seeking an immediate boost from mobile investments a smart
strategy is to deploy enterprise applications such as POS and real-time inventory visibility. Both applications can drive incremental store sales by offering shoppers the convenience of checking out anywhere in the store, and helping to locate items that are out of stock (or still in the store’s back room).

Retailers who embrace mobility on multiple levels - m-commerce, POS
and enterprise applications - are taking full advantage of its ability to be a direct link to shoppers in a personal and intimate way that no other technology can deliver.

In Depth
This paper examines mobility in retail, but also contains a broader focus so businesses outside of brick and mortar stores can apply insights. Topics include:

• Moving Beyond M-Commerce
• On-the-go Access with Workforce Management Solutions
• Mobile B2C
• Case Study: University of South Florida
• Creating a More Compelling Customer Experience
• Mobile POS: Point/Counterpoint
• Enterprise Apps: Multi-Functional Mobility
• The Mobile Commerce Tipping Point