A survey of United States retail digital marketers indicates that content is the single-most important factor in the digital shopping experience. The survey, according to eMarketer was conducted in June 2015 and, writes, Zmags, breaks down online marketer attitudes at 200 blue chip retail firms.

According to the Zmags “State of Digital Marketing Survey 2015” study released August 4, 2015, the most critical factors for “creating engaging digital experiences” broke down, as follows:

  • Content—Creating rich media experiences to get people’s attention: 49 percent
  • Context—Delivering the right message at the right time: 20 percent
  • Omnichannel—Delivering content across multiple channels and devices: 17 percent
  • Ease of purchases—Making it easy for consumers to purchase: 9 percent
  • Speed—getting experiences to market quickly: 5 percent

The survey focused on four critical areas that affect how online marketing experiences are delivered: “Factors in creating digital experiences, biggest challenges for marketers today, most important technologies for engagement, and time to market,” explained ZMags. Mobile topped the list over what is on digital retail marketers’ minds, with half saying mobile would be the most important technology for their future strategies, according to eMarketer.

Zmags CEO, Brian Rigney, said, “Our State of Digital Marketing survey clearly shows that online marketers are simultaneously pressured in two ways—the need to create rich content experiences online and the lack of time, resources and tools with which to create and launch them”:

  • Challenges due to time constraints: 40 percent
  • Dependency on agencies or third-party IT companies: 23 percent
  • Need stronger technical skills and knowledge: 22 percent
  • Lack of appropriate tools, technology: 15 percent

RIS News writes that retail Internet technology executives finally understand the importance of mobile. According to a U.S. poll February 2015, several mobile-centric items were cited when retail IT exec respondents were asked about their key objectives for the next 18 months. They indicated:

  • Developing new payment technologies: 46 percent
  • Advancing a mobile commerce strategy: 32 percent
  • Expanding multichannel initiatives: 22 percent

eMarketer notes that it expects mobile to comprise 22 percent retail ecommerce sales in 2015 and notes that total retail sales influenced by mobile will be even greater. Meanwhile, another revelation from the survey: Nearly one-quarter—24 percent—of the marketers indicate that it takes at least one month to launch online campaigns.

“In a fiercely competitive sector, it is essential to employ the tools that allow marketers to easily create and deploy to their website rich digital, e-commerce-enabled experiences such as lookbooks and product campaigns,” added Rigney. “Moreover, bringing experiences to market as quickly as possible has become critical to freeing up time to respond to market trends and fluctuations in inventory levels or to create promotions—all absolute success factors as the preparation cycle begins for the holiday period.”

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