Two out of five US retailers don't have a store
According to a recent report by the United States' Direct Marketing Association (DMA), entitled "Channel Integration and Benchmarks in the Retail Industry," to be successful, retailers need to merge and synchronize all channels in terms of consistent brand message, timing, creativity of promotions, loyalty programs, and fulfillment.
Quite a few retail businesses are still apprentices when it comes to cross-channel integration, concludes the study.
In 2007, notes the report, commercial and nonprofit marketers spent $173.2 billion on direct marketing in the United States. Measured against total US sales, these advertising expenditures generated approximately $2.025 trillion in incremental sales. In 2007, direct marketing accounted for 10.2 percent of total US gross domestic product. Also in 2007, there were 1.6 million direct marketing employees in the US. Their collective sales efforts directly supported nearly 9.0 million other jobs, accounting for a total of 10.6 million US jobs.
Read the full article
