While our annual 2010 State of the Retail Industry report delineates the challenge for retail brought about by consumer behavior changes in reaction to the great recession and the rapid adaption of mobile technology—many of those challenges will take several years to address. To find seven things that retailers can do right now, we asked our experts.

Scott Jeffrey, Chief Creative Officer 

Push for differentiation. There is no time to rest on your laurels. Realize that innovation isn’t a stage, it’s an ingrained brand behavior. In fact, stop thinking of innovation as a  “next step” all together–”step” as in a phase of something that stops and starts, or merely cycles through.

My ideal retail brand would be one that never completes a store design prototype. The “never done” mentality is always asking, “What else? What else can we do to make it better?” That type of thinking requires courage. Belief in the importance of change. Granted, not every one of your new ideas will be a game changer, but once you entertain doubt and back off, you pretty much lose momentum. Particularly now, when the customer expectations are so far ahead of what most retailers are delivering in terms of the brand experience.

The minute you rest on your laurels and let your brand and your stores get outdated, you have a really big, hardest-to-do maneuver on your hands: a turnaround. If you have a fleet of any size, you’re in danger of being too big and too rigid to manage a turnaround. But if you’re a constant seeker, a brand that remains loose and nimble, the maneuvers are much smaller and easier to manage. Your creative adjustments and transitions will be happening all the time. Knock down any silos in your way and get to that mindset as soon as you can.

Bill Chidley, Senior Vice President, Shopper Sciences

Consumers’ rapid adoption of the smartphone means it’s time to start thinking about connecting and communicating through that little screen. To make the most of the opportunity to drive demand, mobile optimization should be a top priority for your brand. It’s all about being in the game. Don’t try to justify mobile initiatives with ROI.  Move forward with a reasonable hypothesis and prepare to learn and adapt.

Don Rethman, Senior Vice President, Architecture

Consider doing a site survey. Do your shoppers expect to share their shopping experience instantly? Do you plan to make fast calls to action in the store? Your building needs a wireless-based backbone to support that, with wireless connectivity that allows for transitions.  This goes even beyond the creation of mobile hot-spots. Buildings must have a distributed, robust and flexible IT infrastructure which will allow technical access to all spaces. It helps if you’re working with architects who are aware there is such a thing as a path to purchase so they can help create a store that increases productivity and doesn’t skimp on the brand experience.

Amanda Yates, Vice President, Strategy & Analytics

It’s vital to map the “customer journey” to understand where best to make the wireless investments, as well as other investments that help your brand drive choice. Mapping will provide the insights that will help you gain advantage and protect sales by offering shoppers what they want in the modes they desire. Not every retailer will need a full-blown program, but each must understand the needs of its customers, what information and access they are looking for and where or how they want to access it. Once these insights are known, the appropriate level of investment and how to spend it will become much clearer.

Dave Nixon, Executive Director, Digital Strategy

The multi-channel ideal is a seamless transition from the physical shopping experience to the virtual experience through every digital touchpoint–one that’s painless for the shopper and profitable for the retailer. However, for most retailers that’s not the first thing you can do. There will be silos to take down, brand strategy work and brand engagement initiatives to adopt before that nirvana is reachable. I’d like to elucidate further on what Bill says (above)—“Get in the game.”

Companies that spend too much time planning their next technology steps will find themselves playing catch up to those that are already moving. One of the main benefits of digital is the ability to deploy it quickly and then modify or adapt the solution depending on the performance metrics for success. In that respect, adopting new digital platforms into your channel strategy is less expensive and presents less risk than physical channels. The time is now to leverage digital technologies for increasing revenue, efficiency and customer loyalty.

Kris Medford, Ph.D., Director of Shopper Sciences

Get to know your shoppers again. Segmentation that is a few years old is downright archaic so make sure your insights are recent and actionable.  Who are your shoppers—both those in your store today and those you want in the future?  What’s important to them from a digital perspective, and how can you use digital help to make your brand be more relevant to their lifestyle?

Justin Wartell, Senior Consultant, Brand Strategy

The physical store needs to evolve from its position as the “jewel in the crown” to a “tool in the arsenal.”  For retailers, the most important thing that can be done right now is to (re)examine the relationship between the physical brand experience and all of the other expressions of the brand.  Brand experiences are inter-connected organisms that create an overall customer feeling about the brand.  By understanding the role that retail plays in the context of the other touchpoints that are, or can be, deployed, retailers can drive loyalty, reputation, efficiency and value across their organizations. 

Curious. In a world where we can create our own unique looks by shopping anywhere we want, or by building our own virtual worlds, we still desire the approval of others and want resassurance that we fit in.

If you want to make sure you are being noticed by the right people, check out your recent witty status post on Facebook to see how many “Likes” you got from friends.

Wondering which outfit to wear tonight? Check with the masses via Go Try It On. Post photos of your look(s) and get fast feedback on which outfit makes you look cool and confident—most like the type of person who doesn’t need approval. There’s been a significant rise in the number of mobile instant fashion advice sites that play into this need.

It seems we are constantly looking for peoples’ opinions of where to shop or how we look. When it comes to apparel, of course, some of that need for approval stems from the fact that today’s fashion trends are very tricky to make work in a flattering way, especially for women. Seeking honest feedback can keep you from spending unwisely. So we are using technology to get advice quickly, right outside our closets, or often at the very point of purchase. 

The shopping behavior in our new “crowd-sourced” world—a world that allows us to customize anything and yet know that we are part of something bigger—feels like an opportunity for retailers.

Think about it in the context of the store environment. There is nothing interesting about stacking piles of the same t-shirt in twenty colors on the table. Or a sales floor filled with endless rounders jammed with hangared merchandise.

The idea that the shopper is looking to create her own sense of style and know that she is making the right decisions provides context for rethinking how we merchandise our stores. We need to tell a story that she can insert herself into and feel a part of—rather than just someone looking in from the outside.

They say that having no presence on mobile devices in 2010 is like not having a website circa 1999. So true! The digital age is in hyper-drive. 3G access continues to increase, and 4G is already here! Some stats say that up to 99 percent of the population will have some sort of data capability on their mobile phones by 2011.

So what does this mean for retailers? It means the need for a whole new view to their digital strategies. When a shopper can enter a store, scan a barcode, see that the same product is cheaper at a nearby competitor and click a link for directions to take them straight there, the game has suddenly been changed, so to speak. There is an ever-expanding catalog of apps out there to enable this type of shopping behavior (in the store, in the car or on the run), and manufacturers like Apple are training customers via commercials and advertisements about how to use all these apps to simplify their lives.

It might be easy to dismiss this trend given the relatively small percentage of people with iPhones or Droids today, but now is the time to start investigating and investing in individual strategies. Almost one third of Americans are already shopping via their mobile devices, and the number grows when you talk about Millenials and their mobile shopping habits.

So what’s the next move? Gain advantage and protect sales by offering shoppers what they want in the modes they desire. Not every retailer will need a full-blown program, but each must understand the needs of its customers, what information and access they are looking for and where or how they want to access it. Once these insights are known, the appropriate level of investment and how to spend it will become much clearer.

Two examples of retailers getting it right

Two brands getting it right are Best Buy and Target, which both have useful apps. Best Buy’s app not only lets you browse its extended online product assortment, but allows you to actually purchase via your mobile device (not many retailers are doing this yet).

It also lets the user locate stores and provides a map that leads you right there (the icon actually moves while you’re moving so you can see where you are in relation to the store). Finally, it makes it easy to navigate, providing a “deals” page, as well as “ideas” and “gifting” pages, not to mention access to your “Rewards Zone” account.

While Target’s app is very similar, it doesn’t let you purchase via mobile, it provides a barcode scanning option that can be used in and out of the store to allow shoppers to find out more information about a product. Beyond price, it offers product information, customer reviews, and availability in your local store.

Both brands understand the needs of their customers and are creating opportunities to enhance the customer journey.