Shopping by Mobile Creates an $8bn Opportunity for Mobile Advertising & Coupons
A new report from Juniper Research has found that the mobile marketing and retail sector (comprising mobile advertising, coupons and smart posters) will exceed $8 billion by 2012 globally.
The Mobile Marketing and Retail Strategies report found that Retailers were already starting to exploit the mobile channel through advertising campaigns on the handset and by issuing money-off coupons. The market for these two activities alone is forecast grow by half in the next two years.
According to report co-author Howard Wilcox, “Our research and interviews showed that location aware technologies will play a key part. Companies like Google and IBM are seeking to exploit the knowledge of where users are located to enable retailers to offer in store shoppers a rich set of capabilities such as personalised special offers. As a result we’re forecasting the mobile coupons market to double to exceed $4 billion in 2012.”
At a recent mobile industry event, CTIA Wireless 2010, more than 20 percent of the show’s attendees were said to come from the retail space, showing that retailers were beginning to latch on to the potential of the mobile channel.
Whilst the mobile advertising and mobile coupons markets will reach similar sizes, Juniper believes that smart posters (which users can tap to obtain product information) will remain a niche sector within the overall market until NFC (Near Field Communications) capable devices are more widely used.
The report also warns however that failure to use targeted, location based advertising, particularly SMS advertising, may cause mobile users to regard such advertising as little better than spam. The report recommends that brands and retailers should consider geotagging their products and locations.
