Whether a formal strategy is in place or not, we find universal consensus by US and EU-based retailers around the opportunity to drive mobile consumer interaction.

Five major areas of focus are emerging:

1. At minimum, expect to see several incremental roll-outs in 2010 of new, retail banner branded mobile applications that can work on the Apple iPhone, Motorola Android, Blackberry, Windows and Symbian-based mobile devices. Mobile application launches will be geared around value added services to consumers. For example, Zara launched an iPhone app that just displays photos of products that are in their catalogue, with no added information. We find more opportunities for informing consumers on the move about product & retailer community features, while creating more intriguing and engaging brand experiences.

2. Creating interaction among mobile owned consumer devices, online commerce sites, digital signage and other instore technologies. This will also be high on the agenda given the key move towards enabling omni-channel consumer experiences. Microsoft-partner CSG and NCR, in partenership with Intel, presented us at NRF 2010 some interesting examples of how retailers can create seamless synergies between mobile, online and store technologies.

3. Mobile barcode integration (1D and 2D) will intensify, not only as a digital customer identification method, but also allowing for more immersive shopping scenarios. Try shopping at Apple retail stores and have a look at their iPod Touch version which incorproates barcode and credit card readers for mobile assistend checkout, inventory queries, and customer orders.

4. Mobile-enabled loyalty scenario will become more popular and the adoption of self-scanning solutions will continue. Self-scanning is going way beyond providing just a self-checkout option, to incorporate mobile digital advertisement and guided selling capabilities.

5. Enabling mobile shopper assistant type of scenarios. Particularly relevant for selling high-value products like CE and fashion, and supporting top spenders in your store.

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