Jennifer Lee, senior manager of the retailer and distribution practice, Deloitte & Touche , placed her bets on mobile’s “multiplier effect.” ” This entails having a “full view of a customer’s path to purchase for all channels and to have an integrated view on how mobile drives online and retail store purchases.” Some of the smartest minds in mobile marketing and advertising recently gave their 2012 predictions for mobile during a webinar conducted by Mobile Marketer and sponsored by Hipcricket. HOW I SEE IT: The webinar was full of insights. MORE >>

IBM’s Smarter Commerce initiative has produced a new online retail benchmark study, research that compares Cyber Monday 2011 versus Cyber Monday 2010 and reveals some surprising trends. retailers. percent of people used a mobile device to visit a retailer’s site, up from 3.9 Apple’s iPhone and iPad continued to rank one and two for mobile device retail traffic (4.1 percent of all online retail traffic versus 10.2 Shoppers using the iPad also continued to drive more retail purchases than any other device with conversion rates reaching 5.2 percent). MORE >>

And finally — another survey report that confirms mobile marketing goes a long way toward increasing revenue in the retailing sector. According to ABI Research’s Technology Barometer: 45 percent of smartphone users with a retailer-branded app visit the retailer’s store more often. But only 25 percent of the respondents had downloaded a retailer-branded app. A new fact-packed report from Chetan Sharma confirms that the global mobile industry is still the most vibrant and fastest growing sector on the planet. Total global mobile revenues are forecast to hit $1.5 MORE >>

The holiday numbers are in, the mobile user surveys are done, and the implications for brands, retailers and marketers are profound. But it also lays the groundwork for strategies that enable brands (and retailers) to build up an opt-in customer database , an interaction they can cultivate by offering coupons and SMS alerts to consumers who genuinely want to hear what the brand has to say. The bottom line: mobile retail is a fact, not a fad. InsightExpress reports that mobile retail purchase intent is eight times higher than online retail purchase intent. MORE >>

National Retail Federation Show, New York City: This week the old Javits Center in the New York hosted retail folk from across the U.S. and shed some light on a technology play that may define a new industry I call Retail 2.0. And, since it is about the shopper experience, it’s clear that winning Retail 2.0 Allow retailer micro-visibility into order status and inventory. Yes, it is about the efficiencies that RFID and other wireless, smart technology bring to retail overall. Retail 2.0 Retail 2.0 It’s coming. What to do? MORE >>