The past year has pushed manufacturers and retailers to work at a much higher level of technology sophistication in trade promotion management. Trends that contributed to this development will continue in 2014, but with more intensity.
Based on feedback from customers, AFS Technologies recently presented ten predictions for "The Road to 2014" in TPM in a webinar.
"Sophisticated strategies are required for this road ahead. To spend trade dollars more effectively, they are going to have to embrace this technology for the coming year," says Joel Cartwright, trade promotion management solution engineer for AFS.
A new research study of digital shopping behavior by Cisco Consulting Services found that a fast-growing percentage of consumers often use smartphones and tablets when in physical stores. While shoppers want personalized offers, however, they generally prefer to receive them via email at home, rather than getting offers while in the store.
KEY QUESTIONS:
What is your opinion of these study results? What are the main things that shoppers are looking for when using smartphones and tablets in physical stores? Should retailers and marketers send personalized offers to shoppers at home instead of sending them to shoppers in the store?
Five Steps to Ensure Consumer Promotion Strategies Keep Pace with Changing Shopper Behavior
This past Thanksgiving weekend sales data provided a fresh reminder that consumer shopping behavior continues to be transformed by the growth of online and mobile channels. The number of shopping trips to brick-and-mortar stores over the weekend actually fell 4% percent, while sales increased a meager 1% vs. the previous, according to Black Friday 2013 data released from ShopperTrak. But Cyber Monday, as detailed in IBM's Cyber Monday Report 2013, was a different story. Online sales rose 20.6%, setting a record for the biggest e-commerce day in history. And mobile shopping was way up, representing 32% of online traffic and 17% of sales.
It may not be surprising to learn that shoppers' response to coupons in fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) categories is also changing dramatically. However, Inmar has discovered a perplexing disconnect between declining coupon redemption and an expressed, "pro-coupon" mindset among shoppers. Importantly, it could leave many consumer marketers wondering, "What should we do?" ...
New Directions in Shopper Technology, the second book from the Shopper Technology Institute. Building upon the foundations of last year's Essentials of Shopper Technology, the book is divided into five sections: Shoppers, Loyalty, Engagement, Analytics and Digital and contains 19 essays on how mobile marketing, social media, sophisticated analytics, Big Data and the like are continuing to evolve.
Those changes-and others-are presented in this book. As well as reading about their area of expertise, progressive executives will gain a fuller understanding of the entire industry.
Click here to read sample chapters and view ordering information for the paperback and Kindle editions.
Ten Predictions 
