Next week Mobile Commerce Daily will announce the 2009 Mobile Retailer of the Year and runners-up. Here is how to find out if you have won.

We will start on Monday with the retailers that came in fifth place, fourth place on Tuesday, third place on Wednesday and so on. The Mobile Retailer of the Year will be announced on Friday, Jan. 15.

“The Mobile Retailer of the Year award goes to the retailer that has most effectively used mobile marketing and commerce, and has integrated it successfully with other media channels,” said Giselle Tsirulnik, senior editor at Mobile Commerce Daily, New York.

“A 360-degree strategy is also a criterion here,” she said.

With mobile phones now outnumbering PCs four-to-one, it is no wonder that savvy retailers are eying the space.

Winners and runner-ups were selected based on ongoing mobile commerce programs and offerings that consist of at least three niches of mobile.

Each day we publish articles and case studies on retailers’ use of mobile Web sites, applications and SMS for customer acquisition or customer retention.

Some retailers, on the advice of their mobile commerce and ecommerce service providers, take more risks than others to push the envelope. It is from these ranks we would like to have the 2009 Mobile Retailer of the Year.

Criteria
What makes a good mobile retailer and hence a candidate for the top honor?

1. The retailer should have consistently made effective use of mobile commerce and marketing for branding or customer acquisition or customer retention or a combination of all three.

2. The retailer should have also incorporated mobile into a multichannel plan. Mobile’s role in making more traditional media work harder is what makes it a standout medium.

3. The retailer should have built a qualified database of respondents to mobile campaigns.

4. The retailer should have created an optimal customer experience on its mobile site or application and via its SMS messages. The site or application should be user-friendly, intuitive and accommodating of on-the-go shopping, searches and transactions.

5. The retailer’s mobile site or application should be a model of mobile merchandising – knowing what products or offers to put where and at what price and shipping incentive on limited screen real estate.

6. The retailer should also have expertise in inventory management to balance demands of shopping or search originating on the mobile device but culminating in in-store sales.

7. The on-site search experience on the retailer’s mobile site or application should be exceptional. The search tab should be easy to locate and use, and pull up results relevant to location, product or search.

8. The retailer should have achieved a high rate of response to campaigns on a consistent basis, thus proving deft use of calls to action and targeted marketing.

9. The mobile commerce or marketing creative should have been consistently outstanding, with the ads or imagery conveying the brand attributes and engendering high click-throughs.

10. The retailer should have shaped mobile commerce in 2009, serving as a role model to peers and encouraging mobile commerce and ecommerce service providers.

“The candidates were all really big players in the retail sector and it was really hard to narrow it down to the top five,” Ms. Tsirulnik said. “But we are very confident that we have chosen the best of the best.

“Congratulations in advance to all the winners,” she said.