A YouGov survey of 2,255 UK consumers has revealed that loading times and product display pages are two of the most common irritations for m-commerce end users.

Whilst only 21% of the people surveyed owned a smartphone, 81% of these consumers had used their mobile phones to help them to shop, compared to just 15% of non-smartphone users.

35% of consumers said that a negative mobile commerce experience would force them to look elsewhere for a particular product. Interestingly, only 25% of those surveyed said that they would try to re-load a page before giving up and taking their business to another retailer, with another 25% stating that after a bad purchasing experience, they would never go to that site again via their handset.

One of the pre-requisites of a successful m-commerce site is to have a slick purchase process. It is vital that retailers keep the information that is required to complete a transaction to a minimum and only ask what is essential to complete the purchase. Otherwise, retailers run the risk of deflecting business away from themselves and straight into the catchment area of their competitors, resulting in high churn rates.

A website designed for use on a mobile phone is clearly a business opportunity for many retailers. The survey revealed that many consumers find having to zoom in and out of a page to view all of the information was annoying and distracted from the buying experience.

With larger brands such as Marks and Spencer and Next now beginning to follow the trend by releasing sites or applications, retailers wishing to crack the m-commerce market would be wise to take this into consideration when developing their site.

Whilst the amount of mobile users shopping via their handset is fairly small at the moment, it is only a matter of time before interest spreads across the mobile industry for consumers and retailers alike. When this surge arrives, it is vital that m-commerce sites are equipped with the ability to shop with ease and simple sophistication.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 14th, 2010 at 10:00 am and is filed under Business Mobiles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.