Sailthru's research and strategy experts unveil new insights from a 2017 retail marketing trends study. Check out the presentation to learn the top trends fueling marketing programs that are exceeding goals, key areas where retail marketers are investing in innovation, practical applications for where and how AI is being tested and strategic recommendations on how to put these insights into action.

1. 2017 Digital Retail Innovation

2. 9 Areas Retail Marketers are Investing and Why
2017 Digital Retail Innovation
Robert Jones
Director, Research &
Insights
Marielle Habbel
Director, Customer
Strategy & Optimization

3. About the Study
• Fielded in February 2017
• 200 Retail Marketer Respondents
• 15 Questions on:
• Success in 2016
• Challenges for 2017
• Plans to invest in new technology
• Things to look forward to in 2017

4. One in five marketing orgs fell short of their 2016 goals
• 19% of retail marketers said they
feel short of their 2016 marketing
goals.
• 28% said they exceeded their
goals.
• Success in 2016 was strongly tied
to budget growth in 2017.
75% of marketers who exceeded
their 2016 goals had larger budgets
for 2017.

5. Retailers Asked to Do More with Less in 2017
Resources, human,
technical, and financial
were most commonly
listed as the biggest
expected challenge to
accomplishing 2017
marketing objectives.
Concerns about
Growth and Scalability
both loomed high over
retailers (16%) as well.
Resources, 21%
Growth/Scalin
g, 16%
Other, 15%Acquisition, 9%
Leadership/Org,
7%
Cross-
Channel/Mobile,
6%
Retention, 5%
Customer
Engagement, 5%
Innovation/Tech,
4%
Competition, 3%
Data, 3%
Attribution, 3%
Personalization,
2%
Automation, 1%
Largest Expected Challenges in 2017,
Categorized

6. Retailers see Email, Mobile as Keys to Meeting Goals
After their sites, email
and mobile are the
channels that retailers
say are most likely to
generate the most
online revenue for their
organizations in 2017.
Q. Which platform/channel do you see generating the most online
revenue for your organization in 2017? (digital channels)
Online
56%
Email
18%
Mobile
7%
Other
8%
Social
4%

7. Retailers See Lots of Room to Innovate in Email
Half of retailers
(51%) see “lots” of
room to innovate in
their email
marketing, while
nearly half (45%) see
“some room to
innovate. Only 3%
say there’s little-to-
no room to innovate.
Q. To what degree do you see your approach to email marketing as
having room for innovation?
1%
2%
45%
51%
None
Low - Little room to innovate
Medium - There is some room to
innovate
High - There is lots of room to
innovate

8. 1 in 4 Retailers Aren’t Ready for Cross-Channel
Q. Do you feel that your org has the foundation and structure it needs
to excel in multi-cross/channel campaign management in 2017?• 27% of retailers think
their orgs aren’t ready
for cross/multi-
channel campaigns,
with the primary
barriers being a lack
of integrated tech and
a lack of
understanding of the
relevant strategies

9. Retailers see Email, Mobile as Keys to Meeting Goals
Retailers see Email
as the top channel
for retaining existing
customers in 2017,
and among the top
channels for
acquiring new
customers, with
Mobile a distant (but
prominent) second.
Channel
Driving New
customers
Retaining Existing
customers
Email 24% 56%
TV 3% 1%
Social 23% 10%
Mobile 10% 12%
Digital Advertising 24% 8%
Print 2% 4%
Native 3% 3%
Other 10% 7%
Q. Which channels do you expect to have the most success with in 2017 with
regard to driving new customers and retaining existing customers?

10. AI Primarily Used for Search, Recommendations
Although marketers have
been able to leverage
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
for some time, adoption is
still limited. Of the two
thirds of marketers (66%)
who leverage AI for
marketing purposes, the
most common
applications are in Search
(37%) and product
recommendations (33%).
Q. For what channels/in what ways do you currently use AI to
accomplish your goals?
Search
37%
Recommendation
Engines
33%
Programmatic
Advertising
26%
Data Science
26%
Marketing
Forecasting
4%
Chatbots
13%
Other
5%

11. Email, Mobile Also Key Areas of Investment in 2017
Half (50%) of
retailers plan to
increase their
investment in Email
marketing and
automation in 2017,
and 38% plan to
increase their
investment in mobile
marketing.
Q. For each of the following marketing tactics/channels, do you plan to
increase or decrease your investment in 2017?
Channel Decrease Same Increase
Native advertising 4% 63% 33%
Content marketing 0% 63% 37%
Facebook/Google advertising 4% 52% 44%
Snapchat advertising 8% 75% 17%
Pinterest advertising 8% 67% 25%
Programmatic advertising 0% 75% 25%
Email/Marketing automation 0% 50% 50%
Mobile marketing 0% 62% 38%
ROI & Measurement 0% 58% 42%
Owned media 1% 67% 29%

12. Excitement in 2017 Stems from Personalization, AI
When asked about what
marketing technology
innovations they are
most excited for in the
upcoming year, retailers
primarily listed
Personalization (22%)
and the application of
Artificial Intelligence
(11%) as the areas
generating the most
excitement.
Personalization,
22%
Other, 17%
AI, 11%
Data, 11%
Cross-Channel,
8%
Mobile, 6%
Native, 5%
Optimization, 5%
Programmatic,
5%
Automation, 3%
Design, 3%
Video, 3%
Retargeting, 2%
Social, 2%
Areas of Innovation that Retailers are Excited
for in 2017, Categorized

13. To Recap:
1. Retailers’ primary concern in 2017 is being asked to do more with less,
particularly if they struggled to meet goals in 2016
2. Retailers see Email and Mobile as key Channels that will drive growth and
success in 2017
3. Retailers see plenty of room to innovate in these channels in 2017, and
plan to invest more in them
4. Automation and cross-channel are two of the major ways they’re looking
to get more out of these channels

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