The State Of Retailing Online 2012: Investments In Mobile And Tablet Commerce

Forrester partners with Shop.org annually to survey online retail executives on their adoption of various web-related technologies and the investment levels associated with those initiatives. This year, Forrester focused very specifically on mobile technologies (defined as both smartphone and tablet efforts). We also surveyed several sister groups of Shop.org within the National Retail Federation (NRF), including the NRF ARTS and CIO Council communities, whose members are primarily retail CIOs, and the NRF Loss Prevention community, which comprises loss prevention and store operations executives. The results of these surveys were similar to findings from previous years: Mobile investment continues to be nascent — largely held in check as retail executives further develop their understanding of the return on investment (ROI) and clarify their business goals for mobile strategies and tactics — and is prudently balanced by the investments that continue to be needed for existing operations across stores, eCommerce, and catalogs.