IT Directors, It's Time To Mobilize

By Stephen Currie, EarthLink Director of Managed Services

There was a time when retail IT work was more straightforward. A typical workday would involve regulating inventory, making sure point-of-sale (POS) systems were working, and ensuring that employees had dependable computer access. But times have changed - and so has IT. Today, nearly 60 percent of American adults own a smartphone, according to Pew Research. Meanwhile, e-commerce is on a major incline. Back in 2012, online shopping was a $231 billion industry. By 2017, Forrester projects that number will reach $370 billion. As customers become increasingly mobile, IT needs to follow suit. 

Between the hundreds of millions of Americans who own smartphones and the hundreds of billions of dollars they spend on e-commerce, it's clear that shopping behavior is undergoing a revolution. The ability to shop online, do product research, compare prices and search for deals on the Web has completely changed how consumers behave. For one thing, they're more discerning: An Invesp study found that 59 percent of respondents said they e-shopped because that made it easier to compare prices. According to the 2014 Mobile Behavior Report, the average person spends 3.3 hours a day on his or her smartphone. And for the 66 percent of U.S. consumers who own smartphones, at least some of that time is spent doing comparative shopping. 

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