Dive Brief:

• More than half (55%) of retailers believe that the main purpose of mobile marketing, point-of-sales, and other activities is to drive sales at stores, according to a study from retail systems analysts company RSR Research. 

• The study, “Mobile Retail Finds New Purpose,” noted that retailers are “losing their fear of Amazon” in large part because of mobile’s potential to drive store sales.

• Some 38% of retailers dubbed as “winners” by RSR (retailers with greater than 3.5% growth in same-store sales) say they don’t yet understand customer perceptions of mobile retail, while 50% of retailer “laggards” don’t understand. And it’s more often winners (21%) who say that consumers are way ahead of them, even too ahead, when it comes to mobile, compared to 0% of laggards.

Dive Insight:

According to this study​, retailers are well aware of two important things when it comes to m-commerce: 1) that consumers are way ahead of retailers when it comes to mobile and 2) retail point-of-sales systems are woefully out of date. The research paints a picture of retailers almost-but-not quite ready to harness mobile for marketing and other logistics, and of savvy retailers using mobile to bring shoppers into their stores. 

“Retailers believe the overarching purpose of mobile is to drive traffic to the stores,” says RSR Research managing partner Paula Rosenblum. “I think that’s incredibly interesting.