“Retailers know mobile is critical yet they aren’t able to do what they know they need to do,” said David Eads, head of product marketing at Kony. “We think the mobile chaos is a major challenge for retailers.
“Some retailers are investing heavily in mobile,” he said. “But those that aren’t will be at a significant competitive disadvantage.”
That’s hardly a surprise. Merchants have competing IT projects to contend with. Payments has traditionally been under corporate treasury control. Meanwhile, advertising, couponing, loyalty, and other merchandising functions are managed by marketing. Those two groups have very different priorities.
This study also confirms that consumers are way ahead in their interest to use mobile payments. Over 60% of the respondents claim they are already doing comparison shopping through their mobile phones when in a real store. Retailers have to catch up.