Retailers have been pondering the impact of consumer adoption of smart phones since 2010, when sales and usage of the devices exploded.

By 2013, retailers had developed a clear sense that the top challenge facing the industry was that “consumers are using mobile as part of their shopping experience and we need to be there “.

In the year since RSR first asked that question, that hasn’t changed: retailers in our latest Mobile Benchmark Report tell us that consumer adoption of the smart phone as a key enabler of their digital paths-to-purchase is still the top challenge that retailers seek to address. But just as importantly, they also tell us that getting budget for new initiatives to combat the mobile-enabled consumer is becoming increasingly hard to come by.

Which, then, are the projects to which have retailers are planning to direct their hard-won dollars? Interestingly, the focus has turned to mobile devices themselves – for developing apps and for managing the devices as well as for providing the connected environment to allow them to “talk ” to upstream enterprise services (Figure).

That doesn’t mean that extending to eCommerce site for mobile is a fait accompli for all retailers, but it is becoming so for a majority.

Figure: Near-Term Plans

Source: RSR Research, February 2014

Retailers budgeted projects show just how much they perceive this as an issue they can’t handle by themselves: 25% have already set aside funding for mobile provisioning and management services, 21% for a mobile-specific development provider, and another 20% are laying out budget for mobile capabilities managed by someone somewhere off site (the cloud). Combining these numbers with the planned, not-yet-budgeted figures, roughly 1/3^rd of retailers are in the market for these three solutions.

The verdict is in: retailers want expert help. We invite you to read the full report, Mobile in Retail: Reality Sets In, which is available by following this link.