As strange as it sounds, the vast majority of merchants from the Internet Retailer’s Top 500 list do not have mobile websites. Earlier this week The New York Times wrote:
The potential for added revenue from mobile sales remains huge, retailers believe. EBay said that in 2010 it generated almost $2 billion in mobile sales, and is on track to double that this year.
But major retailers like Bed Bath and Beyond, Coach, Dillard’s and Ann Taylor still do not have sites designed specifically for mobile phones — known as optimized sites — nor do they have apps. By mid-2010, according to the Acquity Group, just 12 percent of the top 500 United States online retailers had sites compatible with mobile browsers, while just 7 percent had apps.
Now retailers are rapidly realizing they no longer have a choice, because customers expect to be able to shop on their phones and want the experience to be as good or better than on a computer.
Coincidentally or not, I addressed exactly the same topic in my latest article which appeared in the Spring 2011 issue of Revenue Performance magazine. If you’ve attended ad:tech San Francisco you’ve probably already seen it (as the magazine was included in every attendee’s goodie bag), but if you haven’t, you may download the full Spring edition of the magazine here. Here’s just an excerpt from it:
Some merchants do run mobile-friendly websites. Target, Walmart and Amazon are good examples of those that do, as well as service providers such as USPS.gov to Cars.com, but there are many that don’t. …at the time that I’m writing this piece of the four largest U.S. mobile operators only Verizon has a mobile website, while AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint do not.
…there is a huge and growing opportunity here.
…[mobile] users can be focused and engaged but only if and when we provide the right infrastructure to support their focus and engagement. They know what they want, but do we care enough about them to make their experience enjoyable? With that in mind, here are 10 practical tips on how to make your website (and/or landing pages) more mobile-friendly…
Read the full “How Mobile-Friendly Are You?” article at page 33 here. The above-quoted statistics and examples are spelling out one word, both for merchants and affiliates, and the word is: opportunity.