Concluding the three part prediction series, I turn to Will Smith, Brown Shoe Company’s Chief Marketing Officer, to get his thoughts on what 2014 holds for the retail industry.

2014 Predictions within the Retail Industry and How They Have the Potential to Affect Marketing and Advertising, with Brown Shoe Company’s Chief Marketing Officer, Will Smith.

What are your 2014 predictions within the retail industry and how do they have the potential to affect marketing and advertising?

One of the biggest trends we need to pay attention to as marketers is the increasingly savvy, mobile customer.  Where customers once got their product information from a newspaper, TV ad, or billboard, today it’s in the palm of their hand.  Mobile is becoming an essential part of Famous Footwear customers’ shopping experience.  They are on-the-go and demand convenience and access to the latest shopping trends as well as savings.  A significant percentage of visits to famous.com come via mobile devices, and we see this only continuing to increase in the future.  To that end, we recently launched a new mobile app that reinforces our goal of creating an “easy-to-shop” experience for our busy customer in our stores and online.

The new app provides our loyalty members instant access to the savings they earn through the Famous Footwear Rewards program.  They can see and redeem the points they’ve earned any time – this is a benefit exclusively for app users. Rewards members can also receive other exclusive offers via the app, gain more opportunities for bonus points, and easily plan and track purchases.

While there are exclusive benefits for Rewards members, Famous Footwear’s app gives all our mobile shoppers easy, convenient access to the shoe styles and brands that fit their lifestyles. As our consumers continue to rely more on their mobile devices, we’ll continue to look at features that will make the shopping experience easier for these busy families.

Bottom line, the customer expectation for immediate, easy access to information is only going to increase and marketers will need to stay on top of, or better yet, ahead of the curve in order to win.