Consumers to Retailers: Improve your Mobile Sites.

More consumers than ever before plan to use their mobile phones to shop this holiday season, continuing to build up the m-commerce trend that is growing steadily among shoppers but only slowly among retailers.

According to October 2010 research from mobile and social marketing consultancy Brand Anywhere and Luth Research, 51% of consumers say they are more likely to buy from retailers that have a mobile site. But fewer than 5% of retailers have such a site.

Desire for mobile web access varied by industry.

Retailer mobile offerings also varied, and followed some similar patterns. Auto parts and dealerships were at the top of both lists, and groceries at the bottom. But retailer performance is far below consumer desires.

In February 2010, Multichannel Merchant found nearly 80% of multichannel retailers had no m-commerce presence at all, and April research from eROI showed fewer than a quarter of marketers overall had a mobile-optimized website.

According to the Brand Anywhere research, retailers are also making the mistake of showing Flash to mobile devices that don’t support it, like virtually all iPhones and nearly half of Android phones.

“Our research indicates that consumers stand ready to reward retailers who provide a good mobile web experience, especially in high-ticket categories like automotive where they spend more time researching and deciding,” said Dan Flanegan, managing partner at Brand Anywhere, in a statement.

But retailers must make the most to adopt these technologies or risk losing out to their competitors who do.

For more information at http://www.emarketer.com