2017 Digital Retail Innovation

9 Areas Retail Marketers are Investing and Why

2017 Digital Retail Innovation

Robert JonesDirector, Research & Insights

Marielle HabbelDirector, Customer Strategy & Optimization

About the Study

• Fielded in February 2017

• 200 Retail Marketer Respondents

• 15 Questions on:

• Success in 2016

• Challenges for 2017

• Plans to invest in new technology

• Things to look forward to in 2017

One in five marketing orgs fell short of their 2016 goals

• 19% of retail marketers said they feel short of their 2016 marketing goals.

• 28% said they exceeded their goals.

• Success in 2016 was strongly tied to budget growth in 2017.

75% of marketers who exceeded their 2016 goals had larger budgets for 2017.

Retailers Asked to Do More with Less in 2017

Resources, human, technical, and financial were most commonly listed as the biggest expected challenge to accomplishing 2017 marketing objectives. Concerns about Growth and Scalability both loomed high over retailers (16%) as well.

Resources, 21%

Growth/Scaling, 16%

Other, 15%Acquisition, 9%

Leadership/Org, 7%

Cross-Channel/Mobile,

6%

Retention, 5%

Customer Engagement, 5%

Innovation/Tech, 4%

Competition, 3%

Data, 3%Attribution, 3%

Personalization, 2%

Automation, 1%

Largest Expected Challenges in 2017, Categorized

Retailers see Email, Mobile as Keys to Meeting Goals

After their sites, email and mobile are the channels that retailers say are most likely to generate the most online revenue for their

organizations in 2017.

Q. Which platform/channel do you see generating the most online revenue for your organization in 2017? (digital channels)

Online56%

Email18%

Mobile7%

Other8%

Social4%

Retailers See Lots of Room to Innovate in Email

Half of retailers (51%) see “lots” of room to innovate in their email marketing, while nearly half (45%) see

“some room to innovate. Only 3% say there’s little-to-no room to innovate.

Q. To what degree do you see your approach to email marketing as having room for innovation?

1%

2%

45%

51%

None

Low - Little room to innovate

Medium - There is some room to innovate

High - There is lots of room to innovate

1 in 4 Retailers Aren’t Ready for Cross-ChannelQ. Do you feel that your org has the foundation and structure it needs to excel in multi-cross/channel campaign management in 2017?• 27% of retailers think

their orgs aren’t ready for cross/multi-channel campaigns, with the primary barriers being a lack of integrated tech and a lack of understanding of the relevant strategies

Retailers see Email, Mobile as Keys to Meeting Goals

Retailers see Email as the top channel for retaining existing customers in 2017, and among the top channels for

acquiring new customers, with Mobile a distant (but prominent) second.

ChannelDriving New customers

Retaining Existing customers

Email 24% 56%

TV 3% 1%

Social 23% 10%

Mobile 10% 12%

Digital Advertising 24% 8%

Print 2% 4%

Native 3% 3%

Other 10% 7%

Q. Which channels do you expect to have the most success with in 2017 with regard to driving new customers and retaining existing customers?

AI Primarily Used for Search, Recommendations

Although marketers have

been able to leverage Artificial Intelligence (AI)

for some time, adoption is

still limited. Of the two thirds of marketers (66%)

who leverage AI for marketing purposes, the

most common

applications are in Search (37%) and product

recommendations (33%).

Q. For what channels/in what ways do you currently use AI to accomplish your goals?

Search37%

RecommendationEngines33%

ProgrammaticAdvertising

26%

DataScience26%

MarketingForecasting

4%

Chatbots13%

Other5%

Email, Mobile Also Key Areas of Investment in 2017

Half (50%) of retailers plan to increase their investment in Email marketing and automation in 2017,

and 38% plan to increase their investment in mobile marketing.

Q. For each of the following marketing tactics/channels, do you plan to increase or decrease your investment in 2017?

Channel Decrease Same Increase

Native advertising 4% 63% 33%

Content marketing 0% 63% 37%

Facebook/Google advertising 4% 52% 44%

Snapchat advertising 8% 75% 17%

Pinterest advertising 8% 67% 25%

Programmatic advertising 0% 75% 25%

Email/Marketing automation 0% 50% 50%

Mobile marketing 0% 62% 38%

ROI & Measurement 0% 58% 42%

Owned media 1% 67% 29%

Excitement in 2017 Stems from Personalization, AI

Whenaskedaboutwhatmarketing technologyinnovations theyaremostexcitedforintheupcoming year,retailersprimarily listedPersonalization(22%)andtheapplicationofArtificialIntelligence(11%)astheareasgeneratingthemostexcitement.

Personalization, 22%

Other, 17%

AI, 11%Data, 11%

Cross-Channel, 8%

Mobile, 6%

Native, 5%

Optimization, 5%

Programmatic, 5%

Automation, 3%

Design, 3%Video, 3%

Retargeting, 2% Social, 2%

Areas of Innovation that Retailers are Excited for in 2017, Categorized

To Recap:

1. Retailers’ primary concern in 2017 is being asked to do more with less, particularly if they struggled to meet goals in 2016

2. Retailers see Email and Mobile as key Channels that will drive growth and success in 2017

3. Retailers see plenty of room to innovate in these channels in 2017, and plan to invest more in them

4. Automation and cross-channel are two of the major ways they’re looking to get more out of these channels

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