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NRF Launches New Mobile Retail Initiative

The National Retail Federation has launched its Mobile Retail Initiative to offer best practices and learning opportunities for retailers diving into mobile commerce and marketing.

This retailer-led initiative was developed to help the industry leverage existing and emerging mobile technologies to enhance the shopping experience and improve internal business processes.

“Mobile has great promise for bringing major, positive changes to the shopping experience, payments, marketing and other aspects of retail,” said NRF president Tracy Mullin. “In addition to developing the standards and best practices necessary for the industry to move forward, NRF’s Mobile Retail Initiative will inspire retailers to realize the full potential of mobile today and in the future.”

Washington-based NRF brings the collaborative strengths of three of its divisions to the forefront for this effort. Representatives from the organization’s IT standards division, ARTS; digital division, Shop.org; and marketing division, RAMA, are teaming up to develop standards and best practices as well as to create original research, educational events and networking opportunities.

One of the first deliverables from the initiative will be the Mobile Blueprint, a document designed to provide retailers with a road map for executing best practices as a part of their mobile retail strategies.

The mobile blueprint is being developed by NRF’s Mobile Blueprint Committee, which includes representatives from a diverse group of retailers, restaurants and service providers. The committee will be responsible for:

—Identifying processes that can be enhanced by mobile technology, including marketing and customer loyalty, payments, store operations and digital
—Organizing meetings and events to bring professionals from the mobile and retail communities together to maximize adoption of standards and encourage implementation
—Working with banks and other financial institutions to provide multiple alternatives for mobile payments
—Encouraging adoption of global standards surrounding mobile technology and use of ARTS standard data names
—Publishing white papers covering different aspects of mobile technology processing in retail

For more information about the Mobile Retail Initiative, visit www.nrf.com/mobile.

NRF’s global membership includes retailers of all sizes, formats and channels of distribution as well as chain restaurants and industry partners from the United States and more than 45 other countries. In the United States, NRF represents the breadth and diversity of an industry with more than 1.6 million American companies that employ nearly 25 million workers and generated 2009 sales of $2.3 trillion.
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