Accenture Says Retail not Embracing Mobile Fast Enough

This story is certainly something I've been at the center of the last few years in mobile & digital for retail.  Customers have embraced mobile far faster than the companies they shop at can manage, except possibly for Amazon.  That spells problems for retailers.

Read this short coverage of the new analysis from Accenture:

http://www.chainstoreage.com/article/accenture-mobile-retail-not-advancing-quickly-enough

Here is a snippet from the piece:

Retailers are failing to meet consumer demand for increased convenience while shopping with mobile devices.

According to new research from Accenture, the number of consumers shopping with mobile devices, grew 10% in the past year, from 36% of consumers in 2014 to 40% in 2015.

Not surprisingly, the number of shoppers who want more retail services via mobile devices, particularly real-time in-store promotions, also grew to 47%, up from 40% in 2014. However, only 7% of retailers said they currently have the ability to send real-time promotions.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

**UPDATE** The folks over at Mobile Commerce Daily have a good read on this one as well:
http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/47pc-want-real-time-promotions-few-retailers-offer-them-report

Here is a snippet from there's:

Substantially more shoppers want to use their smartphones while shopping compared with a year ago, but retailers are not moving fast enough to meet consumers’ increasingly sophisticated mobile needs, according to a new report from Accenture.

While retailers, for the most part, have adopted basic mobile strategies such as offering a mobile-optimized Web site, very few are addressing more sophisticated needs, such as offering real-time promotions or in-store navigational capabilities. A key takeaway from the findings is that retail capabilities once considered nice-to-have are increasingly becoming must-haves.

Best Reading of the Day - Entry 0204 Accenture on Omnichannel and In-Store

Your best reading of the day is captured in two reports from Accenture highlighted in a number of trade websites today.

The real surprise, and why this is the best reading of the day, is the results on the poor in-store experience.  All of that work on mobile and digital must now, it seems, focus on delivering a superior in-store experience.

Here is one write-up on the reports:

http://multichannelmerchant.com/must-reads/just-how-seamless-is-the-omnichannel-experience-25032015/

Here is a snippet from that piece:

In order to win consumer loyalty and achieve growth across all channels, retailers must enhance their mobile commerce offerings and improve the in-store shopping experience, according to results of a survey of 750 U.S. consumers – and a separate analysis of how U.S. retailers operate across multiple sales channels - by Accenture.

Two studies indicate a number of gaps between consumer expectations related to product offerings and pricing and the ability of retailers to deliver what customers want, as they shop across a growing number of channels.

If you want more from the Accenture reports look here:

https://newsroom.accenture.com/news/us-retailers-struggling-to-meet-consumer-expectations-around-mobile-and-in-store-experience-accenture-study-finds.htm

...and here:
http://www.accenture.com/Microsites/retail-research/Documents/pdf/Accenture-Seamless-Retail-Infographic-2015.pdf

...and here:
http://newsroom.accenture.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=6373

...and here:
http://techtrends.accenture.com/us-en/it-technology-trends-2015.html

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant