UK Retailers Move to Embrace M-Commerce

Most UK merchants expect mobile commerce to be part of their main strategy within the next 12 months, and more than 40% plan to have a transactional mobile site or application within the next year, according to a survey carried out by eDigital Research for the Association for Interactive Media and Entertainment (AIME), the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) and the Interactive Media in Retail Group (IMRG).

Researchers asked 140 marketers associated with retail, advertising or mobile services about their attitudes to mobile commerce. Of the senior-level representatives from UK retail brands, 94% said they considered m-commerce a significant business opportunity, and 59% said they expected their mobile revenues to increase over the next 12 months.

Current m-commerce revenues in the UK are relatively small; 63% of merchants polled by eDigital Research said they made less than 1% of their total revenues from mobile, or did not even measure income from the mobile channel. But retailers are beginning to recognize the emerging demand for mobile shopping. According to comScore and the GSMA, 4.2 million UK consumers per month are using the mobile internet to visit retailers’ websites.  Moreover, Brandbank’s “2010 mCommerce Content Report” noted that growing numbers of UK smartphone users are engaged in shopping behavior on their handsets; just 19% of smartphone owners surveyed in May 2010 said they did not use their mobile phone to help them shop.

Retailers will also be encouraged by recent growth in UK e-commerce overall. Online spending by UK consumers reached £5 billion ($7.9 billion) in July 2010, according to the IMRG and Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index. That marked a 14% rise on June 2010 and an 18% increase on July 2009—as well as the highest leap in ecommerce spending since 2007.  Average spend per person was £81 ($127).

All market sectors recorded higher sales in July 2010 than in July 2009, the index reported. Wet weather at the end of the month contributed to internet sales by keeping many shoppers indoors. Rain also drove visits and purchases at travel websites as consumers arranged escapes to sunnier destinations. Many travel operators had pushed their prices to rock-bottom, too, because the recession and flagging consumer confidence left many flights and package holidays unsold at the start of the summer.