Personally Interact With Your Consumers Via Mobile Devices

February 2014 Integrated Solutions For Retailers

By Cindy Dubin, contributing editor

A mobile device expert says handhelds are evolving purchasing habits.

The retail environment is where most consumers use their mobile devices. According to EMarketer, a digital marketing and commerce research group, onefourth of online sales will be mobile-based as people conduct more of their lives on smartphones and tablets. By 2017, nearly three-fourths of mobile retail sales will be done on tablets.

Rusty Hastings, retail industry marketing manager for Datalogic, a mobile computer developer, says the explosion in the use of handheld devices to make retail purchases is leading to the rapidly evolving consumer. Technology converts the consumer from merely having interest in a product to committing to the purchase. Hastings says that handheld devices can build brand loyalty, facilitate targeted product marketing, and improve communications between seller and consumer.