New data has been released by E-tailing Group Inc., following a survey of large retailers, which showed that 78 percent intend to invest in mobile commerce before the end of 2011.
That said, the majority of these retailers are making their investments with caution. In fact, according to the Second Annual Mobile Mystery Shopping Report by E-tailing Group, 39 percent explained that they will be putting under $25,000 into this year’s m-commerce strategy. The survey included 200 medium- to large-sized retail merchant participants.
Fortunately, according to experts, it isn’t typically too expensive to create a new m-commerce site or to begin a new text message marketing program, so the small budgets that retailers have dedicated to the cause can be enough to get them started.
Among the respondents, though, 6 percent will be spending over $350,000 on their mobile commerce plans. Equally, 2 percent have a budget somewhere between $201,000 and $350,000; another 4 percent will spend between $151,000 and $200,000; an additional 4 percent have $101,000 to $150,000 to spend; 6 percent were willing to spend $76,000 to $100,000; 7 percent would invest $51,000 to $75,000; and another 10 percent would put $26,000 to $50,000 into mobile commerce. Among all of the respondents, 22 percent said that they do not intend to put any money into mobile commerce before the end of 2011.
One quarter of the merchants participating in the survey already have some form of mobile commerce website already in operation, while 34 percent intend to have one created and operational within the next year. Another 22 percent won’t have one within that time, but do expect to have an m-commerce website beyond 12 months from now. Nineteen percent have no intention to deploy an m-commerce site.
