Retailers beginning to exploit mobile channel

A report from Juniper Research has suggested that the mobile marketing and retail sector (comprising mobile advertising, coupons and smart posters, will exceed USD8bn by 2012 globally.

The 'Mobile Marketing and Retail Strategies' report found that retailers were already starting to exploit the mobile channel through advertising campaigns on the handset and by issuing money-off coupons.

The market for these two activities alone is forecast grow by half in the next two years.

Howard Wilcox, co-author of the report, said: 'Our research and interviews showed that location-aware technologies will play a key part.

'Companies such as Google and IBM are seeking to exploit the knowledge of where users are located to enable retailers to offer in-store shoppers a rich set of capabilities such as personalised special offers.

'As a result, we're forecasting the mobile coupons market to double to exceed USD4bn in 2010,' he added.

At CTIA Wireless 2010, more than 20 per cent of the show's attendees were said to come from the retail space, showing that retailers were beginning to latch on to the potential of the mobile channel.

While the mobile advertising and mobile coupons markets will reach similar sizes, Juniper believes that smart posters (which users can tap to obtain product information) will remain a niche sector within the overall market until near-field communications (NFC) capable devices are more widely used.

The report also warns, however, that failure to use targeted, location-based advertising, particularly SMS advertising, may cause mobile users to regard such advertising as little better than spam.

The report recommends that brands and retailers should consider geo-tagging their products and locations.

Western Europe forecast will nearly treble in size between 2010 and 2014, according to the report.

In addition, brands, retailers and merchants should use clever and engaging apps, which can be far more effective.

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