While 58 % of top online UK retailers are ‘mobile ready’, only 19 % of consumers plan to shop online this Christmas via their handsets, according to new research.
Research from social and search agency Tamar, shows that the Christmas Online Retail 2010 study reveals that security and complexity of payment processes are seen, in general feedback from some consumers polled, as obstacles to mobile adoption, for example, keying in credit/debit card details while on the move.
Of those surveyed, the slowest adopters of mobile shopping are the over 55s (10 per cent). Surprisingly, the 18-24 age group were not far behind, with only 11 per cent saying that that they would definitely use mobile for holiday season shopping.
The most engaged age group for mobile were the 25 to 34-year-olds (29 per cent), which contrasted with the 35-44 age group (18 per cent), and the 45-54 age group (20 per cent).
Overall, only 19 per cent of consumers polled said that they would use mobile for Christmas purchases.
The white paper, developed on the base of consumer surveys and Tamar’s web-metric evaluation, shows that Amazon is by far the most popular online retail brand, according to consumers polled, and is the only brand listed to have both a mobile app and mobile web portal.
Tamar also used internal metrics to build a table of which top online UK retail brands were mobile-ready.
The table shows that 56 per cent of top online brands, across a representative range of market sectors, have either a mobile app or mobile web portal. The brands feature in the top 100 online retailers list (IMRG/Hitwise HOT 100).
Questioned about general online intentions this year, nearly half (45 per cent) of those polled said that they intended to buy more Christmas goods online, compared to 2009. Of those planning to buy more goods online in the festive period, one in five confirmed that they were intending to increase spend by 20 per cent or more, with 3 per cent as high as 50 per cent.
Tanya Goodin, CEO of Tamar, comments: “Consumers we spoke to indicate that there is much resistance to shopping by mobile. This underlines Tamar’s view that retailers need to simplify the conversion process while at the same time educate and explain both the benefits and the safe nature of online mobile shopping. We think that retailers are currently failing to understand customers’ needs and concerns; instead they create mobile ready apps and mobile web portals without evaluating whether these meet the needs of customers.”
Online Christmas 2010: Top online retail brands engaged through mobile
The Christmas Online Retail 2010 white paper was developed on the base of a face-to-face survey of 100 consumers in November 2010 with additional data from Tamar’s retail web metrics team.
www.tamar.com
