Retailers advised to be bold when considering 'mobile'

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Retailers are being urged to approach 'mobile' with an open mind by hardware and solutions provider Digipos Store Solutions.

In a list of top tips on how retailers should embrace mobile and use it to enhance the customer experience, Digipos said it believed that mobile in retail was all about the customer experience, and that now is the time for retailers to be bold and make that first mover advantage, or risk being left behind. 

Ian Patterson, managing director EMEA at DigiPoS, commented: "Retailers are always looking at ways of enhancing the customer experience, and mobile brings a totally new and different interface – it will forever change the landscape. It offers the chance of really optimising customer relations; something which cannot be achieved through standard Point of Sale (PoS) terminals, or self-service checkouts."

DigiPoS gave its top ten tips as follows: 

- Retailers need to look at how mobile will integrate with existing systems and what the time and cost implications will be.

- It is important to then identify a structured and managed marketing campaign for mobile, and to identify what the customer experience will be through this platform, and how to communicate with your customers.

- Retailers need to consider mobile as an extension of their brand's overall experience.

- It is crucial for the mobile strategy to encompass both the store and ecommerce channel. Ian Patterson added: "One thing we come across time and time again is where retailers focus on optimising their ecommerce platform through the mobile. They are in effect competing with their own store offering, when in fact they should be bringing the two strategies under the same banner."

- Retailers also need to consider which team the mobile strategy will sit with. Ian Patterson said: "We are now beginning to see more job titles along the lines of 'head of social and mobile commerce'. Professionals working in this area need to have IT expertise, coupled with good customer service knowledge. I do not believe the role of mobile should sit directly with the IT department. And, we are already beginning to see a cross over between roles amongst the larger retailers."

- Mobile should be approached with an open mind. Loss prevention is an area deterring many from pursuing a strategy at this stage, but what they are failing to see are the huge benefits offered by this technology.

- Be bold and take first mover advantage. Retailers need to focus on the emergence of the 'new shopper'.

- And finally, don't be left behind...

Established in the UK in 1994, DigiPoS operates in over 16 countries throughout Europe, Africa, Asia and North America and employs over 270 people.

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