Australian Retailers Yet To Catch Up With Consumers In Mobile Commerce

Australia has one of the world’s highest levels of mobile penetration and smart phone usage – recent research by Google found that 25% of Australian consumers have used their smart phone to research or purchase a product.

eMarketingConnected’s research found that 15% of all retailers have a mobile website – this compares to 46% in the U.S. where mobile retail websites have grown from 14% in the last year (source – RIS News 2011 Cross Channel Retail Study). This puts Australia a year behind the U.S., assuming a large number of major retailers will take the plunge and build a mobile website in the next year. Dick Smith is one major Australian retailer that has recently launched a mobile website to meet the growing demand (read the full Dick Smith mobile website review here).

Less than half of retailers in all sectors have a mobile website, there’s also a large variation between sectors with multi-retailers leading the way, closely followed by the electrical retailers. The remaining sectors have a low percentage of retailers providing a mobile website.

Mobile commerce will continue to grow. In U.K. 91% of consumers have used mobile commerce and in Singapore, 84% of consumers have bought or researched goods on their mobile phone (source MEF Global). As smart phone penetration and use increases in Australia, the use of mobile to research and buy products will increase. Australian retailers need to build a mobile website if they want to win a share of the growth in mobile commerce.