Retailers Ramp Up Initiatives for Mobile, Social Media

To better serve multi-touchpoint, always-on, and empowered consumers, a growing number of retailers are experimenting with mobile and social initiatives. Some are paying immediate dividends and others are still in the speculative phase.

According to a study conducted by Forrester Research for Shop.org, nine of ten retailers (91%) currently have a mobile strategy in place or in development (up from 74% a year ago). Additionally, nearly three of four retailers (72%) say they will increase their spending on social networks this year over last year.

"As sales channels continue to blur in retail, companies are creating mobile apps that make their brands seem current, entertaining, or fun, while at the same time creating a unique opportunity to connect with more shoppers than ever before," say study officials... 

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The Shopper Technology Institute welcomes five companies as sponsoring members:

GfK, Inmar, DS-IQ, Gladson and DataLogix.

GfK Custom Research North America offers the fundamental knowledge that industry, retailers, services companies and the media need to make market decisions. It delivers a comprehensive range of information and consultancy services in three business sectors-Custom Research, Retail and Technology and Media. Their shopper insights team, GfK Interscope, is a dynamic and flexible sales and marketing firm specializing in helping clients win in today's challenging retail landscape. Their collaborative approach creates customized solutions that are proven to build brands and categories at retail.  For more information, visit www.gfkamerica.com. Follow them at www.gfkinsights4u.com or on Twitter @gfkamerica.

Inmar, the most comprehensive provider of promotion settlement services, processes over 3.5 billion transactions annually and serves over 1,000 retailers, wholesaler and manufacturer clients. Inmar's services apply to all types of promotions and extend to every aspect of a promotion's lifecycle, from planning to evaluation.  The digital promotions leader, Inmar offers ONiX, a digital incentive network that connects publishers and point-of-sale technologies to deliver retailers and brands a national footprint for digital promotion distribution, and Conexions, a transaction settlement platform for reconciling digital promotion offers.  For more information, visit www.inmar.com.

DS-IQ's smart technology for retail media grows brands, baskets and trips for retailers and consumer goods makers. Retailers use DS-IQ smart retail media to better target, activate and optimize messages for their shoppers. Consumer brands use DS-IQ to better engage and convert shoppers through the path to purchase. DS-IQ systems serve half of the Fortune 500 CPG manufacturers and retailers and influence $100 million dollars in sales every day. For more information, please visit www.ds-iq.com or see their blog at www.smartretailmedia.com.

Gladson, headquartered in Lisle, Illinois, is the leading provider of syndicated product images and information and category management services to consumer packaged goods manufacturers, retailers, wholesalers and brokers. With more than 700,000 products, Gladson's CPG database contains the most comprehensive product information available. Gladson clients use this information for advertising, shelf space management, category management, logistics, research and e-commerce applications such as online shopping and nutrition programs for consumers. Gladson also provides data analysis, consulting and in-store merchandising solutions that support efficient planogram implementation and increase product sales. For more information, visit www.gladson.com and http://twitter.com/gladsontweets.