The new era of retail marketing

A retail marketing team’s job today is nothing like that of even five years ago. While digital marketing has played an increasingly important role since the mid 1990s, today it jostles for position at the forefront of the retail marketer’s mind.

The digital world is a powerful one, which raises a raft of questions about marketing strategy. How can retailers marry good old-fashioned, above-the-line approaches such as TV and radio adverts with digital techniques such as search engine optimisation, affiliate marketing or social networking? And how does this impact on budgets? Many agree that retailers’ marketing spend for digital was less than 10% of their total five years ago. Today, it’s more like 40%.

Another issue is that digital marketing execution could sometimes be improved. Our affiliate marketing feature shows how some retailers are losing margin and eroding the credibility of their offer by focusing too much on discounting. Perfecting the digital strategy will be a major focus over the next few years, but retailers are finding it invaluable in driving innovative, exciting campaigns, as seen in our crowd sourcing feature.

That said, it’s important that traditional marketing techniques are not overlooked. Done well, in-store events are the perfect way to engage with customers and that entertainment and interaction is hard to recreate online. Even in-store events, though, need to be executed with the digital world in mind. For maximum success, they often need to be promoted and booked online.

Retail marketers have a prime opportunity to devise innovative and inspiring ways to engage with customers. It’s a challenging time, but an exciting one, too.

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