Multichannel commerce has now arrived and has a firm foothold in the mainstream shopping experience of consumers, allowing them to use various types of devices to assist them in their purchasing decisions and processes.
Customers aren’t just heading out to the nearest store in order to buy the products and services that they want, but they are also including the use of devices at home and work, such as desktops and laptops, as well as mobile devices no matter where they are – including in-store, such as smartphones and tablets.
This is requiring businesses to learn how to deliver a cross-channel experience to their customers, in order to be able to compete with the other merchants in their marketplace. Retailers need to know how to involve these devices in the marketing, transactions, service, and organization of their companies.
A Forrester Research report called Mobile Commerce Forecast: 2011 to 2016, has predicted that by the end of 2016, consumers will be spending over $31 billion over their smartphones, tablets, and other types of mobile device. The same research found that though 87 percent of retailers view the mobile channel as an important revenue stream, only 29 percent has implemented a strategy in order to use that channel.
Approximately 19 percent have a strategy that they are now putting into place, 9 percent have assembled a strategy that they have yet to implement, 34 percent are in the early planning stages but intend to build a strategy, and 9 percent have not yet accomplished anything.
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