Sponge reports: Mobile channels are popular with retailers

70% of online retailers across sectors including travel, fashion, leisure, catalogues, communications and publishing use mobile to communicate with their customers according to new research by mobile marketing agency Sponge. Besides, the 5th part of them said they had used mobile microsites to push specific promotions.

40% of the polled already have an information-led mobile internet site, or are considering to build one. The survey revealed that retailers find mobile to be a useful customer communication channel with 50% of them telling that they had used mobile as a direct response channel in television or press advertising campaigns. 60% of these advertised by featuring an SMS code in TV ads, while 20% did so in print magazines and newspapers.

According to the study 40% of businesses polled said they use SMS messages to send product information while a further 40% use SMS to send stock alerts and delivery time confirmation. 20% said they inform their customers of special offers. Still, despite the high number of retailers using mobile to communicate with customers, only 20% currently use 'm-commerce' as a transactional sales channel.