The Mobile Explosion

By Matt Pillar, Integrated Solutions For Retailers magazine

How quickly the opportunity for retailers to leverage mobility has grown. In November of last year, IHL Group and RetailConnections released a comprehensive report on the mobile applications retailers and consumers are adopting to build and enhance the retail customer experience. Their report found that in Q4 2010, fewer than 25% of the U.S. population used a smartphone. Today, analysts agree that by the end of this year, more than 50% of all U.S. cell phone users will be smartphone-equipped. This January, IBM released findings from a survey of more than 30,000 consumers' shopping habits and preferences, reporting that 49% of respondents use two or more technologies to shop — a 36% increase since IBM's last retail study a year prior — and mobile devices account for the fastest-growing of those technologies.