Recent surveys have shown that merchants in the UK, Europe and the United States, all differ widely on their approach and thoughts about mobile commerce. The numbers show that UK merchants are missing out on about £5.7 billion in sales because of poor website performance.
One hundred UK marketing managers and IT personnel from retail shops were asked about their mobile commerce sites or plans to start a site. Over 28 percent said they had no mobile sites and had no plans to start one. Only 16 percent of the merchants had an m-commerce strategy that was already operational.
Almost 18 percent said they had a plan for m-commerce and had started taking steps to get it started. Eight percent of the merchants said they had thought about it, but did not have a mobile plan started at all. The low numbers are likely due to the way most merchants view mobile commerce.
When asked about mobile commerce popularity compared to online stores; 11 percent didn’t think mobile would ever be as popular as online websites. Around 12 percent thought mobile would be as popular as online sites in another year, and 6 percent said they thought mobile commerce was all ready as popular as online stores.
Three hundred United States merchants were surveyed, and 73 percent said they had a mobile strategy in place. 20 percent was evaluating different mobile mediums, and only 7 percent said they had no plans to implement any type of mobile commerce plan. In the U.S. the mode of choice for merchants seems to be mobile websites.
In contrast, Europe merchants preferred mobile apps, instead of mobile websites. This is most likely due to the popularity of the Smartphone in Europe. About one in three Europeans have a Smartphone, up from one in five last year. Merchants in Europe are more focused on brand awareness and the popularity of the applications. Over 44 percent of the 300 merchants surveyed (Europe) have a mobile commerce app or mobile website.
