In the midst of all of the January conference excitement, we also happened to put out a brand new mobile report, The Impact of Mobile in Retail. In fact, if your inbox is anything like mine this time of year, there’s a very good chance it got completely lost in the shuffle – and since mobile was such a prevalent theme at NRF, here’s a brief overview of some of the most interesting points. While consumers adopt mobile technologies at a breakneck pace, retailers tell us that mobile’s primary ability is to enhance the overall value of the brand. This is a new development for 2013, and is highly encouraging news. What is problematic, however, is that much of what retailers share in the full report — their actions — does not line up with this purpose. Instead, many of the findings of this research show that the current purpose of a mobile strategy is to serve merely as an extension of the existing eCommerce offering:

• Though retailers overwhelmingly want to enhance the overall value of the brand via mobile solutions, their top-rated technology is to extend already-existing eCommerce functionality to the mobile channel. For now, avoidance of price and product conflicts across channels seems a lofty-enough goal.
  
• Retailers underestimate just how much consumers have already integrated mobile devices into their current lifestyles: 52% of retailers believe that mobile devices are used – at any point along the myriad paths-to-purchase modern consumers travel — less than 25% of the time.
  
• Most retailers are no longer as concerned that the technology is advancing faster than they can understand it.
  
• Winners have much higher expectations of Mobile Shopping’s influence in the next three years.
  
• A surprising number of respondents have no plans to implement “barcodes to check price or availability “. Price transparency is real, thanks to Amazon’s Price Check and Ebay’s RedLaser applications; retailers clearly need to embrace the capability.
  
• Almost 40% more Winners than all others see mobile as a way to better understand consumers’ new paths to purchase. This finding tees up what RSR thinks will be one of the top issues of the next two years — the “harmonization ” of digital marketing with more traditional marketing in the omni-channel retail model.
  
• Winners are most in favor of enabling WiFi access for employees (72% vs. 50% for all others). However Wifi access for customers continues to be a very low priority for ALL retailers. The problem isn’t just that retailers aren’t implementing Wifi in their stores but that they don’t yet even see the value it can bring their brand.
  
• Even if budget is available, retailers are having an increasingly difficult time finding the resources needed to manage all of the available mobile opportunities. For the best performers, project prioritization and manpower have rapidly become the #1 enemy within.
  
• The majority of retailers are putting a lot of faith in what a streamlined technology platform — across all channels — will ultimately do for them. Winners are even more bullish on the value.
  
• Fewer Winners are concerned about their IT departments’ technical capabilities, while at the same time looking for more support from their IT team. Quite simply, Winners put more stock in their IT’ers, and know their input is critical to enhanced mobility efforts.
  
• Retailers self-identify the most valuable component of any new mobile initiative is that it be on a “write once/deploy many mobile development platform ” (24%). The second-most budgeted technologies echo the first: 21% of retailers are budgeting for device provisioning and management services. While its encouraging that almost one-quarter of retailers are preparing to deal with the complexity of mobile application deployment, it also points out that most retailers fear that devices and platforms are destined to change too quickly. This is what is keeping retailers on the sidelines from enacting more exciting mobile projects. 

All Retail Paradox Weekly subscribers can download our full line of research for free from our site, and we invite you to read the full report – complete with baseline recommendations for where retailers should be taking their mobile strategies in the very near future – simply by following this link.