Consumers are increasingly using their mobile devices to make mobile purchases, according to a new study from Interactive Media in Retail Group, an ecommerce trade association based in the United Kingdom.

Compared to March 2011, the number of mobile sales last month skyrocketed by 254 percent, the report notes. Similarly, mobile conversion rates were up as well – from 0.7 percent in 2011 to 1.4 percent this year. While mobile conversions still live in the shadow of PC rates (4.13 percent), the report clearly highlights the growth of smartphones as shopping tools.

"[PC conversions could be higher] because many U.K. shoppers visiting e-retailers from their smartphones today are shopping on traditional ecommerce sites," InternetRetailer notes. "Navigating an ecommerce site on a mobile device can be frustrating because a consumer is forced to pinch, zoom and swipe extensively to see products, and the content-heavy pages can take more than a minute to load."

This also notes the importance of developing smartphone-specific retail sites. By optimizing an ecommerce platform for the smaller screens of cellphones, retail merchants may be able to get more mileage out of mobile shoppers.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Tuesday, April 24th, 2012 at 12:42 pm .