Survey: The Vast Majority (87%) of Retail Marketers Plan to Invest More in Mobile Marketing in 2016

RetailMeNot's Latest Retailer Research Highlights Year's Top Marketing Trends and How More Promotional Dollars Are Headed to Mobile

News provided by

RetailMeNot, Inc.

Mar 03, 2016, 07:00 ET

AUSTIN, Texas, March 3, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- RetailMeNot, Inc., a leading digital savings destination connecting consumers with retailers, restaurants and brands, released a new study today titled "The Rise of Mobile Marketing Spend in Retail." More than 200 retail marketing executives with the authority to make spending decisions participated in the study, which revealed major digital trends in the year to come. The biggest trend of all: 87% of retail marketers plan to invest more in mobile marketing in 2016.

Access the full study: http://www.retailmenot.com/mobilespend

Across various retail categories, marketers are increasingly shifting spend into mobile channels as consumers devote an increasingly disproportionate amount of time engaging with their smartphones versus traditional advertising channels, like TV, catalogs and print newspapers.

"We've seen increased interest from our retail partners working to better understand how mobile marketing channels like RetailMeNot can help them drive brand awareness, traffic online and in-store, and ultimately sales," said Marissa Tarleton, CMO, North America, RetailMeNot, Inc. "Leaders in retail marketing have been increasingly investing more in digital media through mobile channels, and attribution capabilities are helping them to better understand the real net positive impact of these investments. The findings of this study corroborate what we are hearing from our retail partners, including how many traditional marketers are struggling to make the shift as fast as possible while working to measure and understand the impact of these investments. Furthermore, RetailMeNot is also happy that the study revealed our company to be one of the top three best ROI channels for our retail partners making mobile marketing investments through our mobile website and app."

A few of the study's key findings include:

Marketing spend set to increase across all channels, but mobile leads the pack. Retail decision-makers are poised to increase marketing spend across both online and offline channels, with mobile budgets set to grow the most. In fact, 87% of marketers plan to increase their mobile advertising spend, while 73% plan to increase non-mobile digital advertising spend and 62% plan to increase their offline advertising spend.
Three in 4 (76%) retailers believe that while they are getting some value out of mobile marketing, there is still considerable upside potential for increased returns on their investments. The majority of those surveyed, though, feel that their efforts are on pace with other middle-of-the-pack industry retailers (53%). To stand out from the crowd, nearly 4 in 10 (39%) retailers are ready to make mobile a major component of their budget (50% to 100% of their budgets).
Retailer mobile teams are increasingly responsible for driving both mobile and in-store traffic. 74% of retailers' mobile marketing teams surveyed in 2016 reported being responsible for digital promotions that drive both online and in-store sales, compared to just 64% in 2014.
Mobile coupons provide trackability and insights across channels. As retailers look to solve the attribution challenge that mobile brings to the consumer journey, mobile single-use and unique promotion codes are providing key tracking capabilities for marketers and helping to reduce breakage. 75% of retail marketers surveyed feel that mobile unique promotion codes issued through partners provide above average ROI.
More accolades for RetailMeNot. According to the survey, RetailMeNot ranks #1 as retail marketers' preferred mobile coupon partner, and ranks #3 as a mobile marketing partner that provides the best ROI.

Access the full study: http://www.retailmenot.com/mobilespend

Methodology
The RetailMeNot Retailer Mobile Survey was conducted between January 4, 2016, and January 18, 2016, using an email invitation and an online survey, among 200 marketing decision-makers at retailers who work at organizations that sell products or services both online and in physical retail locations and have at least $50 million in annual revenue.

Results of any sample are subject to sampling variation. The magnitude of the variation is measurable and is affected by the number of interviews and the level of the percentages expressing the results.

In this particular study, the chances are 95 in 100 that a survey result does not vary, plus or minus, by more than 6.9 percentage points from the result that would be obtained if interviews had been conducted with all persons in the universe represented by the sample. The margin of error for any subgroups will be higher.

Revenue distribution among respondents was as follows:

$50 million – less than $250 million: 19%
$250 million – less than $500 million: 26%
$500 million – less than $1 billion: 25%
$1 billion or more: 31%

About RetailMeNot, Inc.
RetailMeNot, Inc. (http://www.retailmenot.com/corp/) is a leading digital savings destination connecting consumers with retailers, restaurants and brands, both online and in-store. The company enables consumers across the globe to find hundreds of thousands of digital offers to help them save money while they shop or dine out. During the 12 months ended December 31, 2015, RetailMeNot, Inc. experienced over 718 million visits to its websites. It also averaged 23.2 million mobile unique visitors per month during the three months ended December 31, 2015. RetailMeNot, Inc. estimates that approximately $4.8 billion in retailer sales were attributable to consumer transactions from paid digital offers in its marketplace in 2015, more than $600 million of which were attributable to its in-store solution. The RetailMeNot, Inc. portfolio of websites and mobile applications includes RetailMeNot.com in the United States; RetailMeNot.ca in Canada; VoucherCodes.co.uk in the United Kingdom; RetailMeNot.de in Germany; Actiepagina.nl in the Netherlands; ma-reduc.com and Poulpeo.com in France; RetailMeNot.es in Spain; RetailMeNot.it in Italy; and Deals2Buy.com in North America. RetailMeNot, Inc. is listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange under the ticker symbol "SALE." Investors interested in learning more about the company can visit http://investor.retailmenot.com.