The Digital Approach to Retail — Online and In-store

We recently spoke with Lauren Freedman, President of the E-Tailing Group, about multichannel retailing. Here’s a snippet from the full version available to eMarketer Total Access subscribers, where she discusses how mobile technology will affect the shifting industry landscape:

eMarketer: Let’s shift gears here and talk about another multichannel retail service: Web access from in-store. Do you see retailers switching their focus from Web kiosks to mobile technology?

Ms. Freedman: I think it’s early in the game. There is definitely consumer interest in mobile. But we haven’t seen much use of it to be truthful. I’m seeing it more on the Websites while we’re doing our mystery shopping right now for product reviews and other things.

eMarketer: Do you think there’s some retail categories where kiosks don’t make sense? Should every retailer have kiosks?

Ms. Freedman: Again, I think it goes back to the merchant’s goals and what they want to accomplish and if the kiosk can accomplish that. It also seems like, in some instances, it’s about what’s being vendor-funded.

Kiosks have never been ubiquitous to begin with and I think we’re in the early days. As an example, we did this other study, which we haven’t published that had some questions about mobile and kiosks. We asked 1,000 consumers to rate what their ideal shopping experience would be and what the reality is.

One survey question was, “I want to use or I use my mobile phone in the store to access product reviews, secure additional product information, price compare and even locate merchandise at another store.” On a scale of 1 to 5 scale where 5 and 4 were somewhat important, only 18 percent of the people said that they were ideal and 8% actually use them.

We then asked, “Is it ideal to have access to the Web or access the Web in the store for product information gathering beyond a sales associate?” For this question, 45% of the people said that that would be ideal, and 13% actually used it.

Then we asked about kiosks. “Informational kiosks should be able to help me or help me with decision-making while I’m in the store.” Some 48% of the people said it was ideal, 10% of the people actually used it.

The mobile question is interesting. Freedman is right: It may still be too early to track how retailers have capitalized on in-store Web use, except perhaps, in Japan. Still, as we’ve wrote before, the opportunity for retailers to go digital at the point of sale will be exciting to watch.

Technology will certainly play its part, as will consumer adoption: Increasingly, mobile coupons are perceived as a effective opportunity for many brand marketers and retailers, and it appears consumers are starting to pick up on the trend. The buzz also continues to grow around QR codes — a matrix code which allows consumers to snap mobile photos and instantly receive product information. Between burgeoning technologies and growing consumer demand for digital integration in stores, 2010 figures to be a fascinating year for the convergence of Web and in-store retail marketing tactics.