51% of U.K. Mobile Users Use Mobile Commerce; 41% of Brands Will Create Mobile Apps or Sites

About 41 percent  of U.K. retail brands expect to have a transactional mobile site or application within the next year, according to a study by the Association for Interactive Media and Entertainment, the Internet Advertising Bureau and Interactive Media in Retail Group.

But 51 percent of mobile phone-owning UK consumers (22.95 million people) have used mobile commerce apps and features.

About 43 percent have used their mobiles to conduct research. About 35 percent report they have used mobile to enhance the shopping experience.

About 37 percent have charged a purchase to their mobile phone bills and 27 percent have used their mobiles to buy goods and charged the purchase to their debit card, credit card or PayPal account.

The study found that while mobile commerce is still very much at the consideration stage, the majority of retailers surveyed expect mobile commerce to be part of their main strategy within the next 12 months.

The survey of 140 marketing professionals from the retail, advertising and mobile service provider sectors in the U.K. also found that 59 percent of the senior-level representatives from U.K. retail brands that took part expected their mobile revenues to increase over the next 12 months, and 94 percent saw it as a real opportunity for their business.

Each month in the U.K. 4.2 million consumers are visiting retailers’ websites using the mobile internet. However, just four out of the top 20 most frequently visited retailer websites are presently optimized for mobile, and only eight of the top 20 have any kind of mobile application for smartphones like the iPhone, Blackberry or Android powered devices.

Whilst most retailers believe their mobile revenues will increase over the next few years, currently around 63 percent either make less than one percent of their total revenues via mobile, or don’t measure their mobile revenues at all at present.

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