The Retailers Association of India (RAI) and Octane Marketing have completed a collaborative study of the impact of technology on Indian retail marketing initiatives.

The study found out that almost half of retailers surveyed (47 per cent) are looking to expand their online presence. Twenty-seven per cent of them are thinking beyond the confines of offline operations and have already started to dabble in e-commerce. About 16 per cent of e-commerce retailers said that they are also experimenting with physical store to further their reach.

Customer acquisition came out as the primary marketing goal for 54 per cent of retailers. Customer retention and brand awareness have fallen behind at 22 per cent and 19 per cent, respectively, according to both online (e-commerce) and offline retailers (brick-and-mortar stores).

Some 27 per cent of the retail companies surveyed heavily use technology for marketing efforts while 44 per cent use it to some extent. On the flipside, 26 per cent of respondents say they use minimal technology while four cent don’t use any at all in their marketing efforts. This shows that there’s a lot that can be done to improve their awareness of marketing technology and its benefits.

When it comes to customer engagement, offline retailers and online retailers think differently. While 58 per cent of offline retailers feel sales and special offers get them maximum engagement only 20 per cent of online retailers feel the same way. For 60 per cent of the online retailers surveyed, email marketing is the more preferred platform for customer engagement.

Meanwhile, about 55 per cent of offline retailers are using mobile as a marketing channel while only 10 per cent of the online retailers are doing the same. At the same time, less than half (43 per cent) of offline retailers are using email marketing while a massive 80 per cent of online retailers are doing the same.

Demographics (age, gender, location etc.) and average basket value came out as the top two metrics (at 64 per cent and 49 per cent, respectively) used by Indian retailers to understand their customer base. Income by segmentation was the least favoured metric by all retailers (34 per cent).