Mobile Retailing Explodes - Are you missing out?

It was announced today that there has been an explosion in mobile retailing. Google and the British Retail Consortium has stated that mobile search volumes for retail services has increased by 29% in the last quarter whilst purchase searches have increased by 181% in the same period.

Many retailers are now revealing that they are really benefitting from the surge in smart phones and tablet PC's with some stating a 42% increase in sales via this channel! The top 10 searchs were announced as:

1. Boots
2. Dresses
3. Fancy dress
4. Beds
5. Kitchens
6. Curtains
7. Sofas
8. iPod touch
9. Amazon kindle
10. iPod nano

whilst iPogs and the Kindle may not be a surprise surely furniture and clothing must be! So what does this mean to the small business and how must we ready ourselves for the increase in mobile retailing?

Well you must start with your website. Your site must be viewable and easy to read on a phone - check for yourself, is it clear? Often websites do not translate well on a smaller medium but this can be assisted with testing and using appropriate formats.

Also do you offer an ecommerce element to your site? Id it time to? People are making decisions on pruchases on the move and you need to take advantage of this even if you offer a call back solution. Don't let them just leave your site and buy elsewhere