84 percent of businesses in this industry aren’t catering to smartphone customers.
Despite the fact that nearly 90 percent of British fashion retailers believe that mcommerce should be a vital part of their business, a recent poll has shown that the vast majority has failed to do much about it.
The MoPowered research showed that many factors are holding businesses back from mobile commerce.
Among those factors are the perception of high costs, concerns regarding security, and a lack of adequate resources in order to achieve the necessary goals. At the same time, though, 90 percent of the approximately 300 U.K. fashion retailers of small- to medium-size that took part in the research – entitled OnePoll – have stated that it should be a central element of their businesses.
That said, while they know they should be involved in mcommerce, 84 percent don’t have a dedicated website.
When compared to the same time last year, the number of consumers in the United Kingdom with smartphones has skyrocketed by 38 percent, now reaching more than 28 million devices.
MoPowered chief executive, Dominic Keen, explained that “With recent British Retail Consortium figures showing a slump in retail sales during the Olympics (August 2012) and with autumn ranges set to be rolled out as well as the looming Christmas period, fashion retailers can’t afford to risk missing out on this additional business as consumers want to shop anytime, anyplace and anywhere.”
Many of the businesses that have hesitated to create their own mcommerce websites stated that there were simply too many large factors in the way, stopping them from taking the plunge. Beyond all of the aforementioned reasons, 36 percent also stated that they felt that starting sales over smartphones would simply be too time consuming.
Equally, though, among the same retailers who made those statements felt that there would be a tripling of mcommerce sales within the upcoming five years.
Keen cautioned that the most recent Google data has indicated that of all of the traffic online, 15 percent is now coming from various types of mobile device such as smartphones and tablets. Therefore, not opening an mcommerce website should be considered to be the same as shutting down an online shop for a full day each week.
