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Multichannel Retailers Lag In Mobile-Optimized Site Deployment

Didit Editorial

June 17, 2013: Mobile connectivity is quickly becoming ubiquitous (more than half of Americans now possess smart phones), and mobile U.S. commerce revenues are rising rapidly. And yet an alarming number of e-commerce firms appear to not understand the importance of optimizing their online properties for the mobile experience.  According to Cynthia Boris, over at MarketingPilgrim.com, less than a third of multichannel retailers maintain a mobile-optimized web site.

What’s holding up the upgrade? One would think that etailers obsessed by ROI would be among the first to deploy efficient, profitable mobile site. It’s not a shortage of knowledge about the problem – according to Boris, 49 percent of merchants know that their sites aren’t set up for the mobile experience.  Apparently it’s because their customers haven’t asked for it.  Here’s an even more troubling finding: 29 percent of merchants have no plan to optimize “in the foreseeable future.”

Given the stakes here – especially in light of Google’s stated declaration that it will soon begin to apply economic incentives (both positive and negative) to reward mobile-optimized sites – it’s hard to fathom what’s holding e-commerce merchants back.  On the other hand, it’s clear that mobile merchants who act proactively and take steps now will win out over competitors who wait for some outside factor – perhaps their customers, or perhaps Google – to activate their site optimization teams.

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