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Mobile device usage is changing how consumers engage with retailers—bringing together the physical and the virtual in ways that other cross-channel efforts have not. But even though it’s relatively inexpensive for retailers to experiment with mobile, many have been slow to develop a mobile strategy. This survey report examines the consumer mobile landscape, and lays out the challenges and opportunities for retailers
Citation preview
Keeping Up with the Mobile Consumer
2011 Benchmark Report
Nikki Baird and Steve Rowen, Managing Partners
September 2011
ii
Executive Summary
In RSR's collective years in the retail industry we have rarely seen a technology act as such a
galvanizing force on the retail industry - and in a positive way - than consumer mobile. It is a sea-
change in how consumers engage with retailers, for the first time truly bringing together the physical
and the virtual in ways that cross-channel efforts to-date have not. And it is relatively inexpensive to
experiment with on the part of retailers. But so far, it is a Retail Winners' game (those respondents
that outperform their peers in year-over-year sales growth).
Business Challenges
Overall respondents report that they haven't yet figured out how to identify and accommodate
different customer segments, that they have difficulty coordinating the mobile experience with other
channels, and that the consumer technology landscape is evolving too quickly. While that makes for a
very challenging environment for developing a mobile strategy, perception of ensuing challenges vary
drastically by retailer performance and size. The largest retailers are more challenged by the difficulty
of coordinating across channels, while Winners are more likely to focus on a more definable business
need.
Opportunities
Optimism about the channel is widespread. Overall, 51% of respondents say that their mobile sales
will grow "significantly" in the next 3 years, and another 42% expect at least some growth, if not a
"significant" amount. The top three opportunities have a natural focus on the customer: deeper
customer engagement to drive loyalty, the opportunity to drive innovation through mobile offerings,
and deeper customer engagement to drive sales. More than twice as many Winners as their peers
report that they have been using consumer mobile and either are starting to get an idea of what to
measure or already feel comfortable with the results that they're getting.
Organizational Inhibitors
Resource challenges top the list of reasons why retailers haven’t seized more of the opportunities
they see mobile solutions providing. In ascending order of difficulty, the top-three roadblocks are
having the necessary resources to manage all of the available eCommerce and Mobile opportunities,
overall budgetary constraints, and difficulty in quantifying Return on Investment. More problematic,
however, are the number of retailers who are frozen in their tracks due to the rapid pace at which
mobile technologies change. Sixty percent of retailers admit that a single executive, charged with
ensuring the customer has a seamless experience across whichever channel – or technology – she
chooses to engage is vital to becoming “unstuck.”
Technology Enablers
Retailers are vaguely ambivalent as to what a strong mobile offering even looks like. While 79% know
that a cut and paste version of a full eCommerce site is simply not a viable mobile strategy, the field is
split nearly down the middle as to the value of a downloadable app. Though a vast majority of
retailers ascribe value to retailer-provided wireless in stores, very few have yet to do anything about
it. While technology adoption is still in very early days, twenty three percent of all retailers have
budget set aside to ensure that the mobile developments they take on are repeatable across multiple
platforms; 21% already have budgeted for mobile capabilities delivered via the cloud (or a Software
as a Service model). All retailers recognize that mobile devices, their capabilities, and shoppers’
willingness to use them are very difficult to predict, but Winners understand that “the next big thing” in
mobile devices – or platforms – may be just around the corner at any given time.
iii
BOOTstrap Recommendations
mCommerce's learning curve will be much shorter, but it will also be more complex - a moving target
on the process side, as consumers try to figure out how to best use mobile as part of the shopping
process, and a moving target on the technology side, as leaps and bounds in technology constantly
change what mobile phones are capable of doing. As a result, we offer the following baseline
recommendations, explained in detail at the end of this report: Use consumers to help shape your
strategy and make sure what you’ve done works, carefully consider/approach a Customer Experience
Officer, rethink wireless, strategize across platforms, and most importantly, don’t be afraid to get in
the mobile game.
iv
Table of Contents
Executive Summary .......................................................................................................................... ii Business Challenges .................................................................................................................... ii Opportunities ................................................................................................................................. ii Organizational Inhibitors ............................................................................................................... ii Technology Enablers .................................................................................................................... ii BOOTstrap Recommendations .................................................................................................... iii
Table of Contents ............................................................................................................................ iv Figures .............................................................................................................................................. v Research Overview ......................................................................................................................... 1
Why This Study Was Conducted ................................................................................................. 1 Early Mobile Efforts are a Winners' Game ................................................................................... 1 Methodology................................................................................................................................. 3 Defining Winners and Why They Win, and Why Laggards Fail ................................................... 3 Survey Respondent Characteristics ............................................................................................ 3
Business Challenges ....................................................................................................................... 6 The Consumer Made Us Do It ..................................................................................................... 6 Uncertainty Abounds .................................................................................................................... 7 What about the Impact on the Store? .......................................................................................... 8
Opportunities ................................................................................................................................. 10 Engagement, Innovation, and . . . Engagement ........................................................................ 10 We're Working On It ................................................................................................................... 10 Defining Consumer Mobile Capabilities ..................................................................................... 11
Phone-Friendly ....................................................................................................................... 12 Personalized ........................................................................................................................... 12
The Bottom of the List ................................................................................................................ 13 Winners vs. Peers: Day and Night ............................................................................................. 13 The Lowest-Hanging Fruit Gets Picked Quickly ........................................................................ 14
Organizational Inhibitors ................................................................................................................ 17 Mobile Has an Uphill Journey .................................................................................................... 17 The Way Forward ...................................................................................................................... 18 More Players Required .............................................................................................................. 19
Technology Enablers ..................................................................................................................... 20 To App, or Not to App ................................................................................................................ 20 Winners Keep Their Eye on the Ball .......................................................................................... 20 The Wireless Story Continues ................................................................................................... 22 Early Days .................................................................................................................................. 23 Too Soon to Lock In ................................................................................................................... 24
BOOTstrap Recommendations ..................................................................................................... 25 Don't Let Speed of Change Frighten You .................................................................................. 25 Use Consumers to Help Shape your Strategy ........................................................................... 25 Carefully Consider/Approach a Customer Experience Officer .................................................. 25 Rethink Wireless ........................................................................................................................ 26 Strategize Across Platform ........................................................................................................ 26
Appendix A: RSR’s Research Methodology .................................................................................... a Appendix B: About RSR Research .................................................................................................. b
v
Figures
Figure 1: Retail Winners See Early Sales From Mobile .................................................................. 2
Figure 2: Winners Cite Mobile Presence More Often Than Peers .................................................. 2
Figure 3: Skating Towards the Consumer Mobile Puck .................................................................. 6
Figure 4: Uncertain End-Users, Business Process, and Technology ............................................. 7
Figure 5: Consumers Just Move Too Fast ...................................................................................... 8
Figure 6: Consumer Price-Check Ignorance ................................................................................... 9
Figure 7: A Whiff of Opportunity for Differentiation ........................................................................ 10
Figure 8: A Race Up the Mobile Learning Curve ........................................................................... 11
Figure 9: Top Mobile Opportunities Leverage the Phone or Personalization ............................... 12
Figure 10: Payment Types Near the Bottom of the Priority List .................................................... 13
Figure 11: Performance-Based Priorities: Purchasing vs. Promoting ........................................... 14
Figure 12: Fast Progress Against Capability Gaps ....................................................................... 15
Figure 13: Big Spending Plans on Mobile Capabilities.................................................................. 16
Figure 14: Stuck in the Mud ........................................................................................................... 17
Figure 15: Much Help Needed ....................................................................................................... 18
Figure 16: Input in Demand ........................................................................................................... 19
Figure 17: Lots of Neutrality .......................................................................................................... 20
Figure 18: Device Sales Dictate Platform Importance................................................................... 21
Figure 19: Wireless Value Drastically Outweighs Adoption and Plans ......................................... 22
Figure 20: Follow the Budget and Plans ....................................................................................... 23
Figure 21: Winners Take the Long View ....................................................................................... 24
1
Research Overview
Why This Study Was Conducted
Consumer mobile. Can you think of a hotter topic in retail right now? In RSR's collective years in
the retail industry we have rarely seen a technology act as such a galvanizing force on the retail
industry - and in a positive way. You could perhaps argue that eCommerce was such a force, but
in many ways it was an isolated initial event - retailers established a separate team, often in a
separate building, and tasked them with figuring out "this internet thing." Stores were relatively
unaffected by the eCommerce business in the beginning - and stores to this day are where most
of the action is, when measured by sales.
You could argue that Y2K was a galvanizing force on the industry, but it was not a positive one.
Yes, it caused retailers to upgrade their point of sale software and take a fresh look at some very
old systems on their books. And yes, in some cases it led to an increase in capability that made
some of eCommerce and cross-channel commerce possible today. But it wasn't customer-
focused. It was something retailers had to do in order to keep their systems from blowing up
when 1999 turned over to 2000. In fact, between Y2K, Sarbannes-Oxley and PCI, it's amazing
that retailers were able to do anything innovative with the customer experience in the first decade
of this century.
That is why consumer mobile is so exciting for retail. It is a sea-change in how consumers
engage with retailers - for the first time truly bringing together the physical and the virtual in ways
that cross-channel efforts to-date have not. And it is relatively inexpensive to experiment with on
the part of retailers. Anecdotally, CIO's have said that they can get into the consumer mobile
space for the low-low starting price of $15-30,000 for an app. Even better, with all of their
regulatory- or emergency-driven investments mostly behind them, retailers are ready and willing
to spend some tech money on the customer experience - perfect timing for mobile.
But that leads us to the question of this report. Within the retail enterprise is consumer mobile
being pursued like eCommerce - a dedicated team, their own building and t-shirt, hundreds of
thousands of dollars poured into it? Or is it more like initial social media efforts - the "intern" does
it, or a Russian sub-contractor who whipped up a mobile app for pennies on the dollar? Or is it
strategic - designed from the outset to be an integrated part of retail's cross-channel strategy?
And what capabilities are retailers pursuing in their mobile efforts? Are they driving innovation, or
are they responding - panic-mode - to a more informed and demanding mobile-engaged
consumer?
Early Mobile Efforts are a Winners' Game
There is no doubt that mobile is "hot" in retail right now. In our overall look at cross-channel
commerce strategies this year, we found that mobile was by far the fastest-growing channel for
retailers.1 But it is also a Retail Winners' game (those respondents that outperform their peers in
year-over-year sales growth). Over half of Retail Winners report that they are seeing sales from
their mobile channel vs. 37% of their peers (Figure 1).
1 Enabling Buy Anywhere/Get Anywhere: The Future of Cross Channel, RSR Research, July
2011
2
Figure 1: Retai l Winners See Early Sales from Mobi le
Source: RSR Research, September 2011
Optimism about the channel is not limited to Winners. Overall, 51% of respondents say that their
mobile sales will grow "significantly" in the next 3 years, and another 42% expect at least some
growth, if not a "significant" amount.
However, it is Winners that have made the strongest moves into the mobile channel (Figure 2).
Figure 2: Winners Cite Mobi le Presence More Often than Peers
Source: RSR Research, September 2011
Winners outnumber their peers nearly 3 to 1 in the number of respondents reporting that they
currently operate a dedicated mobile site, and are also more likely to report having a
5%
10%
5%
17%
27%
24%
55%
41%
9%
7%
Others
Winners
What percent of your annual sales come from the mobile channel?
More than 5% 3-5% Less than 2% None Don’t know
48%
19%
38%
10%
81%
33%
86%
48%
28%
28%
31%
72%
38%
83%
Social channels
Downloadable mobile app
Mobile SMS campaigns
Dedicated mobile/mCommerce site
Online/eCommerce
Catalog
Stores
What Channels do you operate today?
Winners Others
3
downloadable mobile app. Their peers, on the other hand, are most likely to report their mobile
presence is an SMS campaign, rather than something targeted to a smartphone.
Methodology
RSR uses its own model, called the “BOOT,” to analyze Retail Industry issues. We build this
model with our survey instruments. Appendix A contains a full explanation of the methodology.
In our surveys, we continue to find differences in the thought processes, actions, and decisions
made by retailers who outperform their competitors and the industry at large – Retail Winners.
The BOOT model helps us better understand the behavioral and technological differences that
drive sustainable sales improvements and successful execution of brand vision.
Defining Winners and Why They Win, and Why Laggards Fail
Our definition of Retail Winners is straightforward. We judge retailers by year-over-year
comparable store/channel sales improvements. Assuming industry average comparable store/
channel sales growth of six percent in 2010 compared to 2009, we define those with sales
above this hurdle as “Winners,” those at this sales growth rate as “average,” and those below this
sales growth rate as “laggards” or “also-rans.” It is consistent throughout much of RSR’s research
findings that Winners don’t merely do the same things better, they tend to do different things.
They think differently. They plan differently. They respond differently.
Laggards also tend to think differently. They may have spectacular vision, but often fail on
execution. They may forget the power and breadth of choices today’s customer has. They fail to
re-invent themselves when it becomes obvious their existing business model is no longer
working. They don’t change their business processes in an effective manner, and so they either
eschew technology enablers, or don’t gain expected Return on Investment on those they DO buy.
In good times, they skate by: in tough times these weaknesses come back to haunt them.
Survey Respondent Characteristics
RSR conducted an online survey from June-September 2011 and received answers from 83
qualified retail respondents. Respondent demographics are as follows:
• Job Title:
Senior Management (e.g., CEO, CFO, COO, CIO) 23%
Vice President 13%
Director/Manager 44%
Internal Consultant 15%
Staff/Other 8%
• 2010 Revenue ($ Equivalent):
Less than $50 million 24%
$51 million - $249 million 16%
$250 million - $499 million 8%
$500 million - $999 million 12%
$1Billion to $5 Billion 30%
4
Over $5 Billion 10%
• Year-Over-Year Comparable Store Sales Growth Rates (assume average growth of 3%):
Worse than average 12%
Average 31%
Better than average – single digit growth 40%
Better than average – double digit growth 17%
• Headquarters/Retail Presence:
USA 47% 56%
Canada 4% 36%
Latin America 8% 20%
UK 6% 20%
Europe 14% 26%
Middle East 0% 6%
Africa 6% 8%
Asia/Pacific 16% 26%
5
• Primary Category:
Apparel, Footwear and/or Soft home 18%
Consumer Electronics 10%
General Merchandise and Hard Goods 14%
Groceries 20%
Hardware and Construction 2%
Drugs 7%
Jewelry and Accessories 2%
Home Furnishings 4%
Music, Books and Entertainment 4%
Prepared Food 4%
Fuel (Petrol) 0%
Auto Parts 2%
Miscellaneous Services 0%
Other 20%
6
Business Challenges
The Consumer Made Us Do It
According to survey respondents, the primary reason they are addressing a consumer mobile
strategy is because they see that consumers are already there and using it as part of their
shopping experience (Figure 3).
Figure 3: Skating Towards the Consumer Mobi le Puck
Source: RSR Research, September 2011
But while respondents clearly indicate that consumer need is overwhelmingly the biggest
business challenge they face, there are some big differences in perception of the business
challenges beyond that first clear one.
Retail Winners are more likely to focus on a more definable business need - that they are seeing
the traffic on their online site increasingly come from mobile devices. They are also slightly more
inclined to feel that store sales are getting cannibalized, while simultaneously seeing an
opportunity - that their competitors have not yet figured out their mobile strategy. Laggards and
other peers, however, are six times as likely to say that mobile price comparison is hurting their
business (more on that below), as well as ironically noting that their competitors have a mobile
strategy and they need to respond. More troublesome is the overall challenge for both Winners
and their peers in struggling with the fast pace and "wild west" feel of the consumer technology
landscape - citing the speed of change in consumer mobile technology as a top-three business
challenge.
The largest retailers in our survey report something of a double-bind: fully 50% of retailers with
revenue greater than $1 billion say that mobile technology is moving too fast to keep up, but 45%
24%
33%
24%
33%
48%
29%
81%
4%
23%
31%
38%
38%
42%
92%
Mobile price comparison at the shelf is hurtingour business
Our competitors have a mobile strategy andwe need to respond
Our competitors don't have a mobile strategy
Store sales are getting cannibalized; mobile canhelp
Mobile technology is moving too quickly; wecan't keep up
We're seeing significant online traffic frommobile sources and need to respond
Consumers are using mobile as part of theirshopping experience and we need to be there
Top 3 Mobile Business Challenges
Winners Others
7
of these respondents also report that their competitors have a mobile strategy and they need to
respond.
Uncertainty Abounds
Uncertainty is not limited to the largest retailers. When it comes to identifying the top challenges
to creating a differentiating mobile experience, overall respondents report that they haven't yet
figured out how to identify and accommodate different customer segments, that they have
difficulty coordinating the mobile experience with other channels, and again that the consumer
technology landscape is evolving too quickly (Figure 4). In other words, "we don't know what
consumers want, we can't get organized internally to deliver it, and by the time we do, consumers
have moved on." That makes for a very challenging environment for developing a mobile
strategy.
Figure 4: Uncerta in End-Users, Business Process , and Technology
Source: RSR Research, September 2011
The largest retailers - those over $1 billion in revenue - are more challenged by the difficulty of
coordinating across channels. This is understandable to some degree - these retailers have
larger investments in a larger status quo - especially with the existing investment made in
eCommerce channels. It's also much rarer for a CEO to put a stake in the ground and say "we
must do this" at this level than at a retailer in the $250 million or less range - where the CEO is
most likely the primary owner of the business as well.
At the smaller retailers, $250 million in revenue or less, the pace of technology change is far more
threatening, which is also understandable. They don't tend to have the cushion to experiment that
larger retailers do, even when the going-in investment is tens of thousands of dollars.
5%
10%
20%
25%
30%
15%
25%
60%
60%
12%
12%
16%
16%
28%
36%
44%
60%
64%
We don't want to do what our competitors aredoing
The technology is not advanced enough to createthe kind of experience we'd like to offer
Consumer expectations limit how quickly we caninnovate
The transparency - competitors can see and copyinnovations too easily
We don’t know what the customer perceives as valuable/differential
Consumers privacy concerns over how we collector use data
The consumer technology landscape evolves tooquickly
Difficulty coordinating with other channels tocreate a seamless cross-channel experience
Understanding and accommodating how differentcustomer segments engage with us
Top 3 Challenges to Mobile Differentiation
Winners Others
8
These complex challenges carry through to our pulse on retailers' general philosophy and
approach to a mobile strategy. Overall, respondents agree that the consumer has evolved so
rapidly that retailers have little choice but to have a mobile presence (Figure 5).
Figure 5: Consumers Just Move Too Quick ly
Source: RSR Research, September 2011
They also pretty strongly agree that mobile's impact or best uses have not yet been fleshed out.
However, we also found that retailers that are already selling via mCommerce (those that
reported any sort of mobile sales) were much less likely to agree with this particular statement
than peers. In other words, they are finding that they're already on the learning curve and
gathering important information about how consumers want to use the mobile channel - and what
retailers can do to best position themselves to meet those needs.
What about the Impact on the Store?
All of these challenges are well and good, but one of the main findings from our cross-channel
strategy research was that retailers are increasingly concerned about cross-channel's impact on
the store.2 Mobile only exacerbates these challenges by exposing the inconsistencies between
online and store, whether in pricing, product information, or even product availability.
So how do retailers perceive how their mobile business challenges are impacting the store? To
some degree, they see it as a non-issue, with 25% of respondents reporting that they haven't
seen any mobile price comparison going on in their stores, and another 9% say that they
completely ignore the impact of mobile price comparison at the shelf.
However, these numbers have fallen significantly from our research of a scant eight months ago,
when we focused specifically on the impact of price transparency on the retail enterprise. At that
time, 43% of retailers said that they had yet to experience the joys of consumers using their
phones to check competitive prices on items at the shelf.3
2 Enabling Buy Anywhere/Get Anywhere: The Future of Cross Channel, RSR Research, July
2011 3 Optimizing Price in a Transparent World, RSR Research, April 2011
9%
24%
35%
37%
57%
43%
35%
9%
13%
16%
9%
6%
3%
1%
3%
We have completely different goals for mobileshoppers than eCommerce shoppers
Mobile's impact/best uses are not yet fleshedout
The customer has evolved so rapidly that weare forced to have a mobile presence
Mobile Philosophy - Statement Agreement
Strongly agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly disagree
9
While we delve more deeply into the topic in our recent store research, The 21st Century Store:
The Search for Relevance, we did ask in this survey whether retailers were turning to employee-
facing technology to respond to this more mobile-savvy consumer. We found that retailers, for the
most part are still ignoring the topic (Figure 6).
Figure 6: Consumer Pr ice-Check Ignorance
Source: RSR Research, September 2011
However, an interesting trend is emerging - here, Winners slightly edge out their peers in
reporting an interest in leveraging employee-owned devices to meet the information challenges
that mobile-armed consumers are presenting in stores (13% vs. 9%, respectively). But the gap is
just as apparent among retailers who have already achieved some kind of mobile sales - 13% of
those retailers also report an interest in getting employees to use their own devices to compete
with mobile-armed consumers, vs. 9% of those that have not yet achieved any mobile sales.
27%
18%
9%
32%
23%
17%
13%
40%
Provide mobile devices to all employees
Provide mobile devices tostore/department mangers
Encourage employees to utilize their owndevices in stores
Not yet an issue
What is the best policy for store employees to contend with mobile-informed consumers?
Winners Others
10
Opportunities
Engagement, Innovation, and . . . Engagement
Retailers report their top three opportunities that a mobile strategy presents to the business, with
a natural focus on the customer: deeper customer engagement to drive loyalty, the opportunity to
drive innovation through mobile offerings, and deeper customer engagement to drive sales
(Figure 7).
Figure 7: A Whif f of Opportunity for Di fferentiat ion
Source: RSR Research, September 2011
It's important to note that there is a certain amount of resignation when it comes to dealing with
mobile price transparency - at the bottom of the list in terms of opportunities, only 16% of retailer
respondents say that it is very valuable to them to try to use mobile to discourage the use of price
comparison at the shelf.
We're Working On It
In terms of maturity, clearly retailers are early on the consumer mobile maturity curve. This
survey's respondents report that for the most part they are working to choose the right
components to include in their strategy for consumer mobile (Figure 8).
16%
27%
27%
30%
40%
41%
59%
61%
61%
73%
41%
48%
44%
36%
42%
41%
34%
27%
27%
25%
43%
25%
29%
34%
18%
18%
7%
11%
11%
2%
Discourage the use of price comparison byoffering another mobile option
Disrupt other retailers by providing a mobileexperience that encourages the use of my…
Mobile in-store concierge to alleviate someof the sales burden from store staff
Stop the decline in store sales
Mobile "save the sale" at the shelf
Empower store employees through mobilesite or app access in stores
Deeper insights into shopper behaviorthrough mobile site or app insights
Deeper customer engagement to drive salesthrough personalized offers
Identify innovative mobile use cases that noone else is doing yet
Deeper customer engagement to buildloyalty through mobile channels
Mobile Opportunities
Very valuable Somewhat valuable Not valuable
11
Figure 8: A Race Up the Mobi le Learn ing Curve
Source: RSR Research, September 2011
However, more than twice as many Winners as their peers (24% vs. 10%) report that they have
been using consumer mobile and either are starting to get an idea of what to measure or already
feel comfortable with the results that they're getting. No Winners reported that they had no plans,
vs. 14% of their peers.
Consistent with the entry price tag to play in consumer mobile, the smallest retailers report being
the most aggressive in their progress along the maturity curve - 36% of retailers with less than
$50 million in revenue say they have been using it and are either seeing benefits now or are
defining the right measures. However, they are also the biggest group to say they currently have
no plans: 18% of these smallest retailers vs. 6% of overall respondents.
Defining Consumer Mobile Capabilities
If the bulk of survey respondents are still working to identify which capabilities they want to
include as part of their mobile strategy, then the next logical step is to take a look at the
capabilities they report as being the most valuable. From a long list of possibilities, the top mobile
channel capabilities that present the greatest opportunity for our retail survey respondents include
search for merchandise, store locator, receive coupons/offers, and access product reviews
(Figure 9).
14%
19%
14%
43%
5%
5%
0%
12%
15%
50%
12%
12%
No plans
We are willing to experiment even if we don’t yet know the outcome
We would be willing to experiment if we couldmeasure the impact we are having
We are working on selecting the rightcomponents to our mobile offering(s)
We’ve been using it, know what we are trying to achieve, but need to know how to measure
We’ve been using it, are already targeting the right audience, and are happy with the results
Consumer Mobile Strategy
Winners Others
12
Figure 9: Top Mobi le Opportunit ies Leverage the Phone or Personal ization
Source: RSR Research, September 2011
This list can be grouped into two general areas: those that leverage the innate capabilities of
smart phones, and those that take advantage of the fact that a mobile phone tends to be a fairly
personal device - one owner per device, in other words.
Phone-Friendly
Store locator, access product reviews and ratings are all capabilities that make the most of
technologies that smart phones tend to come with these days - cameras for scanning, GPS for
finding location, even click-to-call to contact a store directly. The retailer doesn't need to know
anything about the customer in order to provide this information, but a customer with a smart
phone will have a much easier time accessing richly detailed information than one with a basic
"feature phone."
Search for merchandise, while number one in terms of our respondents' opportunities, is a little
more complex. While it may be possible to leverage smartphone capabilities to make product
search faster - cameras for either barcode scanning or for image identification, for example - if the
search involves any kind of browsing, retailers need to be very careful. RSR has done other
research to evaluate mobile app capabilities and quickly found that browsing on a mobile phone
requires a very well-thought-out approach to categorizing merchandise for browsing, with a
deeper hierarchy (letting the user get closer to a limited set of results before presenting
bandwidth-heavy images), and with more summarized product detail pages that load quickly.4
Personalized
In the other category, personalization, retailers value opportunities that let them reach individual
consumers via their personal devices. Receive offers/coupons, check order status, and redeem
coupons/offers all fall under this type of capability - either through a login on a mobile site or via a
"registered" mobile app, shoppers can quickly access personalized information delivered right to
them from the retailer. The only thing to keep in mind with these capabilities is to make sure that
your company's priorities match up at least reasonably well with your customers. We have 4 Answering the Call: Emerging Best Practices in Consumer Mobile, RSR Research, October
2010
53%
54%
55%
61%
63%
76%
83%
35%
38%
35%
29%
31%
24%
11%
12%
8%
10%
10%
6%
0%
6%
Redeem coupons/offers
Access product ratings
Check order status
Access product reviews
Receive coupons/offers
Store locator
Search for merchandise
Mobile Channel Capabilities
Very Important Somewhat Important Not Important
13
found in other areas of consumer research, for example, that consumers much more highly value
being able to redeem offers via their personal mobile phones than being able to receive offers.
Our survey respondents have the exact opposite priority.
The Bottom of the List
The least important capabilities to our survey respondents (those that received the highest
percent of respondents rating it "not important") include purchasing and redeeming gift cards,
viewing the weekly ad, checking loyalty status, and the always-disruptive using barcodes to check
price or availability (Figure 10).
Figure 10: Payment Types Near the Bottom of the Pr ior i ty L ist
Source: RSR Research, September 2011
Given all of the recent movement in mobile payments, it's not surprising that retailers are putting
relatively less importance on managing electronic forms of payment, including and most
especially gift cards. However, again, it's going to be important for retailers to make sure that their
priorities (or lack thereof) match up with consumer expectations. If retailers don't provide what
consumers want or expect, someone else will - as the popularity of mobile apps like
RedLaser have already proven when it comes to scanning barcodes. If shoppers are going to
do it anyway, is the retailer better off fighting mobile price comparison, or enabling it - and
tracking it, and giving themselves an opportunity to either head it off or at least have a competitive
shot at winning the price-checking shopper's business?
Winners vs. Peers: Day and Night
Looking at opportunities by retailer performance yields a stark difference between the priorities
that Winning retailers assign to certain mobile capabilities vs. the priorities assigned by their
peers. Winners seem to be laser-focused on opportunities that relate to selecting and purchasing
products (Figure 11).
16%
16%
16%
18%
22%
Register/redeem gift cards
Use barcodes to check price oravailability
Check loyalty status
View weekly ad
Purchase gift cards
Mobile Capabilities Rated "Not Important"
14
Figure 11: Performance-Based Priori t ies: Purchasing vs. Promoting
Source: RSR Research, September 2011
In fact, when you look at the list of capabilities that Winners valued more highly than their peers,
you get a basic description of a path to purchase: search for merchandise, access product
reviews and ratings, buy merchandise, and if there are any issues along the way, have easy
access to click to call for help.
Non-winners have a completely different list of capabilities that they gave higher priority to, and
with the exception of the store locator at the top of the list, the rest of the capabilities are mostly
about promoting to consumers: receive and redeem offers, view the weekly ad, price check using
the barcode (which could be especially powerful when combined with the ability to send offers to
a consumer's device).
Consistent with our past research on cross-channel, we find that Winning retailers are focused
more initially on what could be considered basic commerce functionality - the minimum needed
today for a consumer to make a purchase decision. Each of these steps also have a different sort
of value proposition when considered as part of a cross-channel purchase - you don't need a
"buy" button on the phone to give in-store shoppers access to product reviews. But if the product
doesn't happen to be on the shelf, having that buy button sure helps capture a sale that might
otherwise have been lost.
The Lowest-Hanging Fruit Gets Picked Quickly
Overall, retail respondents to this survey report that they are making good progress against the
capabilities they most value. While the biggest gaps are big - search for merchandise and receive
coupons/offers in particular - these gaps are still narrower than many cross-channel capabilities
that RSR has evaluated in the past (Figure 12).
36%
45%
48%
55%
77%
48%
52%
56%
67%
86%
Click to call
Buymerchandise
Accessproductratings
Accessproductreviews
Search formerchandise
Mobile Capabilities That Winners Value More
Winners Others
45%
55%
59%
81%
82%
33%
48%
44%
48%
70%
Use barcodes tocheck price oravailability
View weekly ad
Redeemcoupons/offers
Receivecoupons/offers
Store locator
Mobile Capabilities That Non-Winners Value More
Winners Others
15
Figure 12: Fast Progress Against Capabi l i ty Gaps
Source: RSR Research, September 2011
Store locator, especially when GPS-enabled, becomes almost a requirement to have available on
mobile, but even more difficult capabilities show a surprising amount of progress. For example,
check order status and redeem coupons/offers both require a lot of integration with other systems
- including POS systems for redemption - and they each have at least a quarter of retail
respondents reporting that they have those capabilities in place today. Contrast that with a little
over half of retail respondents to RSR's cross-channel strategy survey, who report that they
currently enable buy online/pick-up in store - and that’s something retailers have been chasing for
at least the last four years.5
It won't take four years for retailers to double some of the more complex mobile capabilities,
either. According to survey respondents, it looks like mobile access to product reviews will be
widely available by the end of 2012, with receiving coupons/offers and search for merchandise
close on its heels (Figure 13).
5 Enabling Buy Anywhere, Get Anywhere: The Future of Cross-Channel, RSR Research, July
2011.
29%
31%
25%
26%
32%
48%
35%
53%
54%
55%
61%
63%
76%
83%
Redeem coupons/offers
Access product ratings
Check order status
Access product reviews
Receive coupons/offers
Store locator
Search for merchandise
Mobile Capabilities -Value ("Very Important") vs. Current Use
Value Use
16
Figure 13: Big Spending Plans on Mobi le Capabi l i t ies
Source: RSR Research, September 2011
In some ways, the massive amount of intended progress reported by retailers is emblematic of
mobile opportunity in retail today: because of retailers' experience in eCommerce, their appetite
to take on some of the more complex capabilities available to mobile is larger than it has
historically been for say, cross-channel or even eCommerce alone. When you couple that with a
relatively low cost of entry and a cadre of vendors focused on making that entry even easier and
cheaper, one key difference that we expect to see between mCommerce and eCommerce is
that mCommerce's learning curve will be much shorter - and the ride that much faster.
17%
17%
17%
17%
17%
23%
28%
17%
21%
21%
21%
28%
19%
15%
Register/redeem gift cards
Click to call
Purchase gift cards
Check loyalty status
Buy merchandise
Receive coupons/offers
Access product reviews
Mobile Capabilities - Investment Plans
Budgeted Project Planned, Not Yet Budgeted
17
Organizational Inhibitors
Mobile Has an Uphill Journey
We aren’t surprised to see that resource challenges top the list of reasons why retailers haven’t
seized more of the opportunities they see mobile solutions providing. In ascending order of
difficulty, the top-three roadblocks are having the necessary resources to manage all of the
available eCommerce and Mobile opportunities (a gating factor reported by retailers in virtually all
of RSR’s eCommerce-specific research to date), overall budgetary constraints, and difficulty in
quantifying Return on Investment. More problematic, however, are the number of retailers who
are frozen in their tracks due to the rapid pace at which mobile technologies change (28%, Figure
14).
Figure 14: Stuck in the Mud
Source: RSR Research, September 2011
As we’ve already noted, this rate of change is not going to slow down; in fact, if a brief history of
modern technology teaches us anything, it’s that the rate of change will only accelerate at
breakneck speed. Consumer adoption is certainly not going to slow, and the technological
capabilities of mobile devices and their users are guaranteed to “hockeystick” in an upward
direction. For this reason, it is imperative that stores understand the mobile, social, and cross-
channel opportunities of mobile technologies – currently, 19% of retailers cite this as an inhibitor
to forward progress. What then, do retailers self-identify as some primary means to get past the
notion that they can wait to implement mobile solutions until a time when the technology is no
longer such a moving target?
9%
16%
16%
19%
19%
28%
37%
40%
51%
60%
The marketing organization does not understand thedigital strategies we need to support…
We don’t know how to turn data gained from mobile channels into actionable business intelligence
Our executive team doesn't understand the mobileopportunity
Stores are a higher technology investment priority
Stores don't understand the mobile, social, or cross-channel opportunities
Mobile technology changes too quickly for us to be ableto make solid investments
Difficulty getting IT resources for eCommerce/Mobileprojects
We don't have enough eCommerce/Mobile resourcesto manage all the available opportunities
Budgeting - there is little capital investment available
ROI is hard to quantify
Please identify the top three (3) organizational inhibitors standing in the way of taking advantage of these
opportunities:
18
The Way Forward
Much of the answer resides in a role that does not currently exist in most retail organizations: a
chief customer experience officer. Sixty percent of retailers admit that a single executive, charged
with ensuring the customer has a seamless experience across whichever channel – or
technology – she chooses to engage is vital to becoming “unstuck” (Figure 15). However, the
opportunities to get past roadblocks do not stop there.
Figure 15: Much Help Needed
Source: RSR Research, September 2011
More coordination between selling channels and the marketing department are fast becoming
hot-button issues for retailers looking to embrace more – and better – mobile opportunities (51%,
above). This trend has also emerged in our recent eCommerce, Omni-channel, Merchandising,
and Store-based research over the past 12 months as an important step to overcome internal
barriers.
Further, Retail Winners are even more bullish on utilizing third parties to help guide them through
the bewildering mobile landscape: 48% of Winners cite high value vs. only 21% of all other
respondents in employing third party mobile expertise. Yet in a very interesting data point, while
Winners look to third party experts more so than do their competitors, one place they are not
looking to for guidance is from the customer, herself. Only 13% of Winners ascribe value to
utilizing more customer involvement in mobile development programs; 27% of average and
lagging performers look to glean insight from this type of increased customer involvement.
Winners are clearly placing their bets, and the future of their mobile strategy, on expert
information. As such, Winners perceive that the customer may be just as confused by a future of
how they will utilize their personal mobile devices in the shopping experience as retailers are
themselves right now.
24%
26%
33%
36%
37%
47%
51%
60%
More customer involvement in mobiledevelopment programs
Case studies/success stories in my vertical
Investment in a streamlined technologyplatform or infrastructure
Third parties to help guide us through abewildering mobile landscape
More experimentation
Solutions that don't burden our ITdepartment
More coordination between selling channelsand marketing
An executive tasked with managing andimproving the overall customer experience
Please rate the value of the following in overcoming the organizational inhibitors you face to improving the
mobile customer experience:
19
More Players Required
Even though retailers want more coordination with the marketing department than they currently
have, in aggregate, our respondents tell us that marketing, and the chief marketing officer in
particular, are appropriately involved to-date in the strategic direction and management of mobile.
The same cannot be said for the CIO, eCommerce Executives, and to a lesser degree, the CEO
(Figure 16).
Figure 16: Input in Demand
Source: RSR Research, September 2011
Further, when asked which departments can benefit the most from information gained via mobile
solutions, 82% of survey respondents cite marketing, 68% say customer service, 52% cite store-
specific sales, and 50% site online-specific sales.
From this data, RSR can decisively suggest that every retail organization consider enacting a
cross-functional team to map out its mobile strategy, comprised of IT, marketing, eCommerce,
store operations, and financial line of business executives. In fact, when a chief customer
experience officer has been established, that person becomes an important driver of the strategic
conversation. However, absent that role (as is currently the case for most retailers), such a team
is absolutely imperative.
Let’s now examine the ways in which technology can help with forward progress.
18%
20%
30%
35%
38%
45%
52%
52%
62%
17%
29%
26%
37%
40%
34%
26%
51%
26%
Supply Chain Executive
COO
CFO
Chief Merchandising Officer
Store Operations Executive
CEO
eCommerce Executive
Chief Marketing Officer
CIO
Who CURRENLTY particpates in the strategic direction and management of Mobile/Who SHOULD increase their
participation?
20
Technology Enablers
To App, or Not to App
So far, we’ve seen that retailers find no shortage of opportunities from mobile technologies. But
due to copious resource and infrastructure challenges, as well a pervasive sense that the
consumer’s adoption of mobility and its evolving capabilities is moving at a pace too quick to
catch, many are still in wait-and-see mode.
It should come as no surprise, then, that retailers are vaguely ambivalent as to what a strong
mobile offering even looks like. While 79% know that a cut and paste version of a full
eCommerce site is simply not a viable mobile strategy, the field is split nearly down the
middle as to the value of a downloadable app. In fact, 33% of retailers are entirely “neutral” on
their feelings about mobile apps, another 20% completely disagree that it will yield more
engagement than a mobile site, and another 47% think it will hold value for their brand offering.
Figure 17: Lots of Neutral i ty
Source: RSR Research, September 2011
It is RSR’s strong contention that only those brands who can thoroughly justify frequent (if not
daily) interaction with a downloadable application consider it the backbone of their mobile
strategy. Consider your brand’s place in the customer’s lifestyle: do your products and services
evoke passion in the consumer? What value would she derive from opening – and engaging with
– your brand’s application as part of her already-crowded list of daily activities? Only those who
can guarantee value from such engagement will avoid being relegated to a back screen/folder –
or worse yet – deleted entirely from the consumer’s personal device.
Winners Keep Their Eye on the Ball
In aggregate, the platforms retailers identify as most important to tackle fall squarely in line with
retail sales of mobile devices, as iPhone and Android-driven devices take top honors (92% and
87%, respectively, Figure 18). Because this is the first study of its kind, we do not have year-over-
year data available for comparison, but based on the recent spike in Droid sales, we anticipate
that Android will only continue to grow in importance for retailers. However, Retail Winners
1%
9%
7%
38%
12%
33%
51%
19%
28%
1%
A cut and paste version of a full eCommerce siteis a viable mobile strategy
A downloadable app will yield more engagementthan a mobile site
Please indicate the degree to which you agree or disagree with the following statements:
Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree
21
disproportionately ascribe higher value to all of the platforms offered to them: 54% selected RIM
(vs. 43% of all others), 32% chose Windows 7 platform (vs. 10% of all others), and 29% of Retail
Winners (vs. 19% of all other retailers) said they still feel feature phones are important to support.
In short, Winners are not backing away from any mobile platforms – wherever and however
customers are using mobile phones, Winners feel it is important to be there. This also
applies to tablets – 54% of Winners identify tablet platforms as important to support, vs. 38% of
their underachieving competitors.
Figure 18: Device Sales Dictate Platform Importance
Source: RSR Research, September 2011
6%
23%
25%
49%
51%
87%
92%
HP Com
Feature Phones (SMS, very basic mobileweb)
Windows 7
Tablets
RIM (Blackberry)
Android
iPhone
Which mobile platforms are most important to tackle?
22
The Wireless Story Continues Earlier this year in our annual State-of-the-Store Report, The 21
st Century Store: The Search for
Relevance, retailers told us they see vast opportunity to interact with in-store customers in
fascinating new ways via the consumer’s personal mobile device – both by driving customers to
the store, and in communicating with them once inside. One missing link in this chain has been
how retailers will engage with consumers via mobile devices - will they rely on cellular networks?
Or provide their own public wireless network? Figure 19 confirms that retailers are rapidly moving
away from anticipating that cellular carriers will shoulder most of the burden.
Figure 19: Wire less Value Drast ical ly Outweighs Adoption and Plans
Source: RSR Research, September 2011
However, just as in our Store Report this year, it is somewhat jarring to see that even though a
vast majority of retailers ascribe value to retailer-provided wireless in stores, (78% of retailers in
this case) very few have yet to do anything about it. In fact, in Figure 20, below, 56% tell us they
have no plans whatsoever to fold in public WiFi to their stores. We did not mince our words
earlier this year – from that report:
Quite simply, as it pertains to wireless networking in the store, retailers just aren’t moving
quickly enough… they are steadily warming to the fact that wireless devices are driving
traffic to the store, but they have become red-hot for tapping those wireless devices’
potential once inside the store, itself. Even further still… they want to use social
networking opportunities to engage with consumers while they are in-house. Yet… 30%
still have no wireless network – of any kind – available in stores, and only 12% have
wireless available for their customers.
As anyone who has ever tried to access Facebook during peak hours on a cellular
connection will tell you – this just doesn’t cut it. In order to interact with customers in any
way via the consumer’s personal device, Wi-Fi is an absolute must.
7%
7%
9%
16%
30%
32%
It adds no value at all
We don’t have stores
It's a PCI/data security risk
It adds minimal value
It is a must
It adds some value
Which of the following best describes your stance on retailer-provided Wi-Fi in stores?
23
And as the widespread advent of 4G networks promise to increase the amount of
content-rich data streaming to smartphones at any given moment, many
telecommunications experts believe that the bandwith of cellular networks will soon
become even more congested, causing cellular connectivity to become less reliable than
the 3G networks of today. If this holds true, free Wi-Fi will become an even more
compelling reason for customers to shop your stores."
Early Days
Across the board, even when looking at the highest performers, retailers have not done much
with mobile yet. However, based on the sheer volume of opportunities they’ve already identified in
the Opportunities section of this report, coupled with the amount of budgeted and planned
projects shown here in Figure 20, we expect that will not be the case when we conduct this
research again in 12 months’ time.
Figure 20: Fol low the Budget and Plans
Source: RSR Research, September 2011
Twenty three percent of all retailers have budget set aside to ensure that the mobile
developments they take on are repeatable across multiple platforms. And while 21% already have
budgeted for mobile capabilities delivered via the cloud (or a Software as a Service model),
another 23% have plans for offerings that leverage such delivery models.
3%
3%
3%
3%
5%
5%
8%
8%
10%
23%
15%
23%
16%
10%
15%
33%
26%
21%
18%
36%
15%
18%
23%
8%
21%
18%
18%
5%
18%
13%
18%
21%
18%
23%
26%
23%
21%
33%
31%
21%
5%
23%
41%
49%
28%
47%
44%
44%
10%
33%
33%
56%
13%
An advertising agency with mobile experience
Mobile PCI certification
Write once/deploy many mobile development platform
Downloadable branded apps (games, lookbooks, etc)
Mobile capabilities delivered via the cloud/SaaS
Device/OS management and maintenance services (tokeep up with changing devices)
Mobile-capable content management
Downloadable shopping app
A mobile-specific development provider
Public WiFi in stores
An ecommerce site that can extend to mobile
How long has your company been actively involved in the following technology-enabled processes in attempting to
improve your Mobile presence?
More than 1 year Less than 1 year Budgeted Project Planned, not Budgeted No plans
24
Too Soon to Lock In
Because retailers are so early in their adoption cycle of mobile solutions, it is important to
examine those technologies which they perceive to hold the most value for them in the near
future – particularly for those retailers whose sales are already outperforming the competition
(Figure 21).
Figure 21: Winners Take the Long View
Source: RSR Research, September 2011
Retail Winners are slightly less inclined to envision a future where the eCommerce site is simply
extended out to the mobile channel (77% vs. 88% of all others). In a related notion, they look to
outside advertising agencies with mobile experience less than do their competitors, as well (18%
of Winners, 31% of all others). Instead, Winners are much more focused on the ability to write
once and deploy across multiple mobile platforms than are average and underperformers (73%
vs. 35%) – another clear indicator that the best performers take a broader view of what mobile
really looks like as it relates to how consumers use mobility. While all retailers recognize that
mobile devices, their capabilities, and shoppers’ willingness to use them are very difficult to
predict, the best retailers understand that “the next big thing” in mobile devices – or platforms –
may be just around the corner at any given time; these are not static times, and therefore any
mobile offering must be built with an innate flexibility to accommodate whatever trends emerge –
and quickly.
31%
19%
35%
47%
25%
31%
38%
71%
35%
88%
18%
27%
27%
36%
36%
41%
45%
64%
73%
77%
An advertising agency with mobile experience
Downloadable branded apps (games, lookbooks, etc)
Mobile capabilities delivered via the cloud/SaaS
Downloadable shopping app
A mobile-specific development provider
Device/OS management and maintenance services (tokeep up with changing devices)
Mobile PCI certification
Mobile-capable content management
Write once/deploy many mobile development platform
An ecommerce site that can extend to mobile
How do you perceive the value of the following technologies? (% 'Very Valuable')
Winners Others
25
BOOTstrap Recommendations
Mobile commerce’s learning curve will be much shorter, but it will also be more complex. Mobile
is a moving target on the process side, as consumers try to figure out how to best use mobile as
part of the shopping process. But it is also a moving target on the technology side, as leaps and
bounds in technology constantly change what mobile phones are capable of doing. The following
are some baseline recommendations to optimize your mobile efforts.
Don't Let Speed of Change Frighten You
Indeed, the retail uses of mobile technologies are still in their early days. Even so, it is safe to
predict that uses of new mobile innovations will become deciding factors for some retailers’ ability
to thrive, and an accelerant for others’ demise. While significant R&D is still required (much of it
will occur on trial and error basis), the good news is that the playing ground is relatively level for
retailers of all segments and sizes. Piloting new ideas which capitalize on mobile technologies
comes at a much lower price tag than have more “traditional” lessons in eCommerce or store
systems experimentation. The key is to at least be in the game.
Use Consumers to Help Shape your Strategy
While it's true that consumers probably would not have given useful feedback for the idea of a
Sony Walkman or iPod - or automobile, for that matter - there is still an important role for
consumers in developing your mobile strategy. Even though consumers may not be able to tell
you exactly what they want in a mobile offering, you should use them to validate that what you've
done works. User Interfaces might be different, use-cases might be different, but it’s important to
remember that mobile consumers are often operating in a different context than eCommerce
consumers browsing from the comforts of home.
Laggards currently pursue using the device as a promotional foothold into consumers' lives – this
is a bad idea. While sorely tempting to try, it is something you can only achieve if you have their
trust to begin with. The best way to win that trust is to be useful – which can be established by
providing in-store access to product ratings and reviews, or enabling purchase at the shelf of an
out-of-stock product.
Carefully Consider/Approach a Customer Experience Officer
Absent this role in the modern day retail enterprise, retailers will continue to fall short on
guaranteeing a seamless shopping experience across channels. We are very confident in this
recommendation, based not only on survey responses from myriad current research reports, but
also because RSR has recently undertaken several projects to evaluate top retailers’ cross
channel offerings: we were thoroughly surprised (and in many cases, let down) by even top-
ranked brands’ inconsistencies across such channels as stores, eCommerce, and mobile. The
temptation is to "just throw it all into one organization" - headed by a Chief Customer Experience
Officer. While this offers some benefits, it also comes with risks. Hence, for retailers who want to
approach the idea of implementing a Chief Customer Experience officer, we suggest maintaining
realistic expectations for what this person should own and manage, a move away from matrixed
organizations, and ensuring that the candidate has enough credibility to wrangle both
eCommerce and store operations.
26
Rethink Wireless
For those retailers who do operate stores, consumer-owned mobile devices provide endless new
opportunities to engage with their customers inside the store’s walls. The caveat here is that to
communicate effectively, particularly as richer mobile media emerge, retailers must have the
wireless infrastructure to engage in the first place. Relying on cellular is not enough in concrete
big-box stores and malls. The time is at hand for a hardened rethink of customer-facing and
secure wireless networks in stores.
Strategize Across Platform
Retail Winners have spoken: no mobile platform should be left behind. From its inception point,
any mobile offering must be built with the flexibility to operate across multiple mobile platforms
and devices in order to make best use of already-strained internal resources.
Lastly, not all new endeavors will be successful. But consider this: the consumer already wants to
use the device she has in her purse; even if a new tactic falls short, she’ll be eager to try it, and
will likely reward you for trying. Certainly, if you don't provide something, someone else will -
disintermediating the retailer at their own shelf, in their own store.
a
Appendix A: RSR’s Research Methodology
The “BOOT” methodology is designed to reveal and prioritize the following:
• Business Challenges – Retailers of all shapes and sizes face significant external challenges. These issues provide a business context for the subject being discussed and drive decision-making across the enterprise.
• Opportunities – Every challenge brings with it a set of opportunities, or ways to change and overcome that challenge. The ways retailers turn business challenges into opportunities often define the difference between Winners and “also-rans.” Within the BOOT, we can also identify opportunities missed – and describe leading edge models we believe drive success.
• Organizational Inhibitors – Even as enterprises find opportunities to overcome their external challenges, they may find internal organizational inhibitors that keep them from executing on their vision. Opportunities can be found to overcome these inhibitors as well. Winning retailers understand their organizational inhibitors and find creative, effective ways to overcome them.
• Technology Enablers – If a company can overcome its organizational inhibitors it
can use technology as an enabler to take advantage of the opportunities it identifies.
Retail Winners are most adept at judiciously and effectively using these enablers,
often far earlier than their peers.
A graphical depiction of the BOOT follows:
b
Appendix B: About RSR Research
Retail Systems Research (“RSR”) is the only research company run by retailers for the retail
industry. RSR provides insight into business and technology challenges facing the extended retail
industry, providing thought leadership and advice on navigating these challenges for specific
companies and the industry at large. We do this by:
• Identifying information that helps retailers and their trading partners to build more
efficient and profitable businesses;
• Identifying industry issues that solutions providers must address to be relevant in the
extended retail industry;
• Providing insight and analysis about a broad spectrum of issues and trends in the
Extended Retail Industry.
Copyright© 2011 by Retail Systems Research LLC • All rights reserved.
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