Despite the fact that recent research is indicating that mobile commerce currently makes up only 2 percent of the overall retail sales, mobile marketers are still seeing tremendous opportunity in this channel.
The annual Direct Response Forum’s Q1 Merchant Survey also showed that only 17 percent of retailers with m-commerce sites or apps saw mobile sales that made up more than 10 percent of their overall retail sales.
What this revealed was that as much as mobile marketers are continuing to push forward into this sphere, most retailers have yet to accept mobile payments and the majority also do not have any intentions to do so in the future.
The survey indicated that among the respondents, 54 percent were incapable of discovering very much about their m-commerce users because the internal systems are incapable of performing this task as they have not been optimized to do so.
According to the Direct Response Forum’s executive chair, Chantal Gaspie, many retailers are knowledgeable in the process for mobile payments and have launched a mobile website. However, “For the smaller retailers, it is new and they do not have an understanding yet of what mobile is.”
The mobile commerce industry as a whole has faced significant scrutiny over the last few years, as both companies and consumers wait for the explosion of adoption in that channel. However, although there has been significant growth, that boom that would bring it to maturity has yet to happen.
Gaspie explained that m-commerce remains in its “infancy”. It is not that it is unimportant, but it simply has not yet received the volume that would justify redirecting resources to it from other important initiatives.
As mobile marketing continues to explode, however, it is anticipated that m-commerce will be soon to follow.
