Whereoware survey reveals five tech trends in gift and home industry

HTT Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 10/19/2012 2:20:31 PM

Herndon, Va. - Whereoware, an online strategy, design, development and marketing company, recently released the results of a survey given to vendors and retailers at the 2012 summer gift and home shows.
Survey findings were combined with data from Whereoware's own base of more than 100 gift and home clients, as well as outside sources, and five key trends emerged:

• Websites: Ecommerce continues grow in use and importance for wholesalers;
• Email: Smarter ‘triggered' emails are effective, yet not widely used;
• Mobile: Traffic is growing strong (are vendors prepared?);
• Social media: It isn't just for kids;
• Tablets: These devices are changing the way people shop and sell.

"The overall message is clear: vendors are finding it a struggle to keep up with all the different ways retailers want to interact with them," said Eric Dean, president of Whereoware. "Our data about the increased use of tablets, mobile and social media demonstrates that gift and home retailers are actually more advanced than commonly perceived. However, technology changes so quickly that it is difficult to know where to invest. This research provides some direction to vendors looking to get a better sense of where to dedicate their resources."
For example, the data showed a dramatic rise in mobile traffic, which increased by 204% from 2011 to 2012. However, 75% of vendors have no plan to enable a mobile plan for their retailers over the next 12 months.
Similarly, while generic blast emails for product announcements are the most often sent type of email, behavior-triggered campaigns like Welcome, No Login and Abandoned Cart are some of the most effective emails by conversion rate, yet these programs have a low penetration rate in the industry.
Social media is another area with a gap in retailer and vendor usage despite 57% of retailers using social media to find new products.
The survey also reinforced the necessity of integrating tablets into the business process. Research shows that 90% of sales reps with a tablet say that the device improves their productivity. This productivity increase is in addition to the operational cost saving enabled by tablets.
See all the trends in an infographic at: www.whereoware.com/5trends.