During the “Power Panel” keynote session, the executive discussed the role that mobile plays in the company’s day-to-day initiatives. Executives from Alcatel-Lucent, General Motors, Qualcomm Technologies and Adobe also participated on the panel.

“Already today, many of our guests are on multiple devices,” said Beth Jacobs, executive vice president and chief information officer of Target, Minneapolis. “It’s about connecting with our guests across multiscreens at all points of the day.

“Whether it starts when you’re on your couch, at the office or in-store, it’s important to connect all those points together,” she said. “You have to think about all of these points of integration and the creative ways that data and other touch points come together.”

Keep it personal
When it comes to mobile, personalization and relevance are an important piece of the puzzle, especially for retailers.

Technology is rapidly changing and devices are becoming much smarter and sophisticated.

Consumers are becoming tech-savvy as well. Therefore, in order to stand out, marketers need to harness the power of data.

Personalization and relevance can help change the mobile shopping experience for the better. It is important that retailers reach consumers with relevant products and content, that will get them coming back in-store.

And, mobile helps accomplish that.

Nowadays, marketers need to use data to reach consumers in new and unique ways. For example, when harnessing the power of location, as well as demographic, retailers can dole out coupons or location-based ads and notifications to drive consumers to the nearest in-store location.

“I was just in San Francisco talking with the Target folks there and what they’re working on,” Ms. Jacobs said. “Imagine going down the grocery aisle and using different lenses of the shopping experience and having the products that you’re interested come up.

“Data and a multichannel approach help define this new and existing customer experience,” she said.

Leading the way
Over the past few years, Target has been revving up its mobile offerings and is continually looking at new ways to strengthen the mobile shopping experience.

Last year, Target ramped up its holiday efforts with a QR code initiative that let consumers scan the mobile bar codes featured on several products in-store and buy the items via their smartphones (see story).

In March, the retailer and Fast Company’s new vertical Co.Labs launched a competition that enticed developers to create an innovative mobile experience for Target (see story).

Most recently, Target used a combination of mobile advertising, SMS and its mobile site to educate consumers about its mobile coupon initiative and encouraged them to save money on several of their favorite products (see story).