Mobility & The Retail Sector

We have been covering the growth and impact of mobiles - in the context of enterprises adoption - Mobile Middleware, Internet Mobiles, Mobiles As Next Frontier and the power of Mobiles in breaking barriers.Iweek writes, mobility enables retailers to improve customer service, increase productivity, and smooth out workflow.The retail sector that has seen an increase in mobile applications, ranging from online retailers to grocery stores. Retailers are increasingly turning to technology to improve operations and boost razor-thin margins. Retail employees at all levels are constantly on the move, and giving these employees access to the right data at the right time. Survey results show that more than 50% of organization currently uses a mobile software solution, while a majority of the rest plans to do likewise shortly. E-mail and voice are the most prevalent mobile applications. Mobility is helping to improve the shopping experience for consumers, as retailers look to in-store kiosks to provide better access to product information and to provide self-service checkout. Wireless is also helping retailers transform from a focus on point of sale to point of service. These point-of-service systems not only provide transactional support, but also bring data from customer relationship management and supply chain applications right to the salesperson's fingertips.
While many organizations saw financial or productivity benefits after deploying a mobile solution, a number of challenges had to be overcome during a mobile deployment.
- Ensuring security and privacy
- Cost justifying the mobile deployment,
- Insufficient network coverage/bandwidth,
- Integrating mobile applications with existing applications/technology,
- Device usability,
- Training employees on the new applications
- Unstable connections to network application.
With mobile industry shifting gears, we can see a lot more action in the mobile sector and almost infinite number of associated opportunities opening up.