What’s the golden rule of retail?  The customer is king!

With 82% of consumers having used their mobile phone in a retail store and more than 50% of consumers preferring to use a mobile than a PC to surf the web, why don’t most retailers offer a mobile-optimised website and/or a mobile commerce app?   mBlox held a retail seminar in London on October 16th, and the 100 people in the room were all excited about the opportunities offered by m-commerce, but nevertheless more than 50% of retailers in the UK have still not launched any kind of mobile initiative.  At the mBlox retail seminar, several presenters revealed big numbers that showcased a huge opportunity for mobile retail, but it seems that mobile initiatives are still considered as an afterthought rather than on equal footing with regular e-commerce sites, with nearly 70% of marketing executives not having any mobile marketing plan.

How long will it take before mobile commerce is given its adequate priority in the minds of retailers?  When e-commerce first appeared, it was probably also considered as a “nice-to-have” afterthought for some high-street retailers, but nowadays who can deny the $90 billion that it’s generating annually in the UK?  m-commerce is forecasted to generate $119 billion by 2015, so when is it going to be significant enough for all retailers to embrace it as a “must have” rather than a “nice-to-have”?   The money’s on the table right now, with hundreds of millions of mobile web users spending their cash on mobile sites and apps.  It will be interesting to watch this mobile retail revolution pan out, to see when the tipping point will occur, when most retailers will have a solid mobile strategy in place.

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