Ecommerce Research Chart: Which department owns the mobile experience?

by Daniel Burstein, Director of Editorial Content

In the MarketingSherpa Ecommerce Benchmark Study survey, we asked:

Q. Which functional department controls each portion of your online presence?

Click here to see a printable version of this chart

Marketing department most likely to own social media and email campaigns

At more than half of companies, the marketing department was most likely to own social media (55% of companies) and email campaigns (54%).

However, not every ecommerce company has a marketing department, as this survey respondent mentioned, "Since we no longer have a marketing department, many things were a challenge, and we missed out on a lot of profitable opportunities."

For both social media (13%) and email campaigns (15%), a general ecommerce department was the second-most likely department to own these functions.

IT department has a role in the mobile experience

The IT department can be an internal challenge for many marketers. For example, one survey respondent remarked, "Our marketing department is moving too fast for IT to keep up with our needs."

For marketers interested in optimizing the mobile experience, a good relationship with IT is essential. While the marketing department was still the most likely to own the mobile experience, only 26% of marketing departments did. The second-most likely department to own mobile was IT, with 24% of companies putting this department in charge of mobile.

For a deeper look into which departments own different aspects of the online presence, download your complimentary copy of the MarketingSherpa Ecommerce Benchmark Study, made possible by a research grant from Magento, an eBay company. In the Benchmark Study, we explored how the ownership of these five functions changes as a company's revenue grows.

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