Giving consumers multiple options when shopping, including the ability to use the cheapest parcel delivery service available to send their purchases to a destination of their choice, is likely to be a crucial driver of growth in the coming year.

This means 2012 could see multichannel retailing come of age and become a substantial part of the shopping landscape, new research from strategic information management company Stibo Systems suggests.

Mobile Marketing Magazine reports that the study, which surveyed chief executives at 100 leading UK retailers, found multichannel solutions to be at the forefront of the technological problems faced by companies in 2012.

According to 78 per cent of respondents, strategic investment to enhance consumers' multichannel experience will drive retail sales this year.

This is reflected in the plans being set out by companies to improve sales over the course of the year, with 48 per cent planning to improve their m-commerce strategy in the coming months.

Of those who are doing so, 53 per cent are looking to enable their online websites for smartphones, while 44 per cent intend to facilitate mobile transactions.

"Mobile is a growing facet of a retailer's multichannel strategy and while retailers have long been aware of it, most have not actively moved towards putting a proper mobile strategy in place," claimed Stibo Systems managing director Mark Thorpe.

He added that previous research from the company found many consumers are not satisfied with the m-commerce offerings in place from many companies, indicating the necessity of focusing on improvement in this sector.

"Retailers need to invest in the right technology to underpin their multichannel offering to manage master product data across all channels," concluded the managing director.

Stibo Systems recently published a white paper on m-commerce highlighting the areas in which retailers can improve and the potential growth which can be made in the sector. It found that while one in three people in the UK own phones with the capacity for online shopping, nine per cent of retailers still have not put an m-commerce strategy in place.
 

Author:  Paul Burn