Retailers’ mobile sites could perform badly over Xmas says Keynote

Rating: ‘ Showrooming’ is major concern for bricks & mortar retailers

It has become obvious that 2012 has become the Year of the Mobile Shopper. Consequently, large numbers of Xmas shoppers are expected to use their smartphones for research and purchasing. A crucial activity amongst mobile shoppers is ‘Showrooming’ which is using your smartphone to compare prices and products before purchasing in store. Keynote reckons showrooming has become the’ trend du jour’ in retail – especially for High Street brick & mortar stores. However, Keynote predicts that consumer expectations and actual user experience are going to be wildly different. Which is worrying because – according to Forrester Research, online retail sales are forecasted to be worth $68.4 billion in 2012 – representing a 15 per cent rise over 2011.

The crux of the problem lies with the fact that 64 per cent of smartphone users want an under four second page download, whilst 60 per cent of tablet users want an under three second page download.

Yet Keynote’s Worldwide Mobile Retail Index (24 sites) suggests that the average response time remains at 11.8 seconds. (See our previous report here on which retailers fared best & worst).

Interestingly, it is most tablet users who will be disappointed by these kinds of performance figures. Two-thirds of mobile sales will come through tablets.

That’s according to Adobe which recently predicted that sales from mobile devices will rise 110 per cent to account for 21 percent of all online sales.

We’re not quite sure why Adobe cares given that it has stopped supporting Flash on mobile devices, forcing smartphone owners to find alternative solutions. Ho-hum.

Anway, Keynote says four in five mobile device owners will use their devices in some way to assist with shopping – including show rooming, couponing, reviews and research. (That’s based on figures from Google/Ipsos).

IMRG/Cap Gemini research indicates that 20 per cent of all online sales are predicted to come from mobile devices but GoMobile News believes that figure will be much higher over Xmas.

“While some sites have taken mobile web performance seriously and are delivering great experiences, the vast majority are still far behind the curve,” warns Aaron Rudger, a senior manager for mobile web performance with Keynote.

He continues, “We believe this year’s contribution from mobile will represent a significantly lost opportunity in goodwill and sales.”

Given the prominence of tablets amongst mobile shoppers and the fact that EE still can’t sell you a tablet for its 4GEE LTE network, retailers only real option is going to be optimising their mobile sites.

Otherwise, many retailers – and mobile shoppers, are going to be left crying into their mulled wine this Xmas.