On the NRF’s second day of talks, Forrester Research VP and Principal Sucharita Mulpuru examined retail trends from 2011 and explored key themes we can expect for 2012 during A Look Back…and Forward…at Retail eCommerce Trends, 2011-2012.
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Mulpuru presented a plethora of eye-opening 2011 statistics to retailers and recommendations for 2012.
In comparison to 2010, retailers with a clear mobile strategy are up from 74% to 91% but retailers are confused as to where to focus their social reach. The RIO for social seems to be the least effective, yet most retailers are putting the bulk of their dollars into social channels, like Facebook storefronts. Mulpuru also suggested that tablets are the wave of the future, noting that desktop use has decreased by more than 30%. But most of all, the speaker suggested paid search as a beneficial means for retailers, and noted that budgets for paid search are forcasted to increase over 70%.
The expert then noted that the 2011 holiday shopping season worked as a retail microcosm for the entire year and that web retail will most likely comprise of 20% of holiday shopping in 2012. Mulpuru also noted that examining ROI for mobile is essentially irrelevant, because of its necessity.
Aside from the mobile landscape for 2012, Mulpuru suggested retailers keep an eye on four major companies: Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google. While admitting that she thinks “Amazon is the new Walmart” she also suggested retailers not get too caught up on what these big four are implementing. Citing Google Wallet’s reach as less than 5% of retailers and less than 5% of consumers, but because the Google brand creates such a hype, the Wallet’s release generated a frenzy. Mulpuru advised retailers to do their research, and noted that historically utilizing the lowest common denominator for the greatest consumer reach.
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