More marketing, IT dollars pouring into mobile

Dive Brief:

Retail companies spend a higher percentage of their marketing and IT budgets on their mobile apps and websites than companies in other industries, with 42% of spending going toward mobile apps and 45% toward websites, according to an Adobe survey of about 500 marketing and IT professionals in several industries.
The survey results were part of the recently-issued Adobe report, "The Next Mobile Decade," which also suggested that for companies in many sectors mobile needs to become the hub of an integrated customer experience, and marketing and IT departments need to work more closely together for this to happen.
Generally, a higher percentage of IT pros than marketing pros who were surveyed said that technologies such as personalization, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things and augmented and virtual reality will be extremely important or very important to improving mobile experience in the next three years.

Dive Insight:

It's not altogether surprising that companies in retail are spending more to market and support their apps and websites than firms in other sectors, especially since consumers have shown that mobile is a key part of the shopping process — even when they are already inside a brick-and-mortar store. In fact, a recent iVend study found more than 71% of consumers surveyed shopped via mobile at some point last year, while at least 60% did so while in-store.

Adobe's report also stated that 38% of retail sector respondents said they always orchestrate their mobile messaging with content in other channels, making retail the sector where that kind of orchestration is most likely to happen. That seems to show that retailers are already starting to understand their mobile strategies can’t remain isolated projects.

More broadly, the Adobe survey found that both marketing pros and IT pros across all industries expect their respective spending budgets for mobile projects to increase this year. Marketers surveyed expected budget increases of around 25% on average, while IT folks expected a somewhat lower, but still significant increase.

Although in retail we're seeing the swift rise of voice-assisted shopping, both mobile apps and websites continue to be important. In fact, about 84% of IT respondents said mobile apps are either very important or extremely important. The figure was lower — 69% — among marketers.

More collaboration between IT and marketing can only make the mobile technology roadmap clearer and more focused, but for marketers, these technologies are for the most part tools for them to use as they become available. The importance of these technologies, especially among retail marketers, will only spike if they can be proven to help increase sales and loyalty among mobile shoppers.