Although mobile commerce is still relatively new to the shopping scene, it continues to make real strides in terms of popularity. According to a new report from IBM, mobile commerce expenditures increased by more than 13 percent during the first quarter of 2012, suggesting consumers are becoming increasingly open to buying goods through their smartphones and tablets.

Mobile traffic, regardless of whether a purchase was made, helped initiate nearly one-fifth (17.1 percent) of all online sessions during the first quarter of 2012, while Apple's iPhone drove the overwhelming majority of mobile visits at 6.5 percent. Overall, online sales showed a 6.3 percent increase from February to March 2012.

"Over the first quarter, the empowered consumer continued to demonstrate the momentum of the online channel and specifically mobile commerce, which has established itself as a legitimate channel for shopping,” said Craig Hayman, general manager, IBM industry solutions.

According to data from comScore, more than 100 million Americans currently have web-enabled smartphones. Retailers need to ensure their ecommerce websites are optimized for these devices or else they could miss out on potential sales.

The internet has become an increasingly important platform for retailers, not only for informing consumer purchase decisions and marketing, but also for direct sales. The majority of major retailers have at least some sort of ecommerce website in play, and for many, it is quickly becoming the centerpiece of the retail experience.

As a result of this focus, a number of retailers have at least some idea of what consumers expect when they log onto a website. A new study from Deloitte suggests retailers have site search, transaction histories and other core functions down pat. However, more complex features, such as mobile commerce, are still a proverbial thorn in the side of many retail merchants.

According to the research, 80 percent of retailers have fast website loading speeds, comprehensive search features and otherwise adequate home page performance. The consulting firm, however, was quick to note that many retailers could improve in the areas of personalized browsing experience. Additionally, mobile shopping has still not been fully embraced, although the number of merchants supporting smartphones has grown significantly over the past year.

"The maturity of retailers in mobile commerce is split among those with advanced capabilities and those with almost no mobile or tablet commerce capabilities," the report notes. In particular, general merchandise, specialty apparel, hardware and jewelry retailers had robust mobile features, as opposed to mainstream apparel merchants, which had the least advanced mobile capabilities.

Personalized experiences were also minimal. Although three-quarters of respondents (73 percent) had features such as welcome messages for return customers, few had in-depth functionality, such as history monitoring and behavioral targeting.

Key takeaways for smaller

merchants

The Deloitte research assessed some of the top retailers, although the same could likely be said of smaller operations. It's important to have a retail website, regardless of how big or small a retailer is. The fact of the matter is that well over 200 million Americans have access to the web, according to data from comScore, and many turn to the internet to buy goods and services.

Don't just simply have a website available, seek to make the online shopping experience an enjoyable one with personalized features and mobile support. This will ensure merchants aren't losing sales due to functionality and website performance.

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.

As many retailers look to incorporate the mobile web into their marketing and ecommerce efforts, many have let their standalone websites fall by the wayside. It's pivotal that merchants devote their full attention to all areas of their online presence to ensure the best customer experience.

According to a new report from Compuware Gomez, Overstock.com took high honors in regards to the consistency of its website. On Internet Explorer, the page loaded with the average variation of 0.78 seconds, meaning the retail brand was largely providing users with the same experience. Macys.com was top dog when it came to Firefox, with a consistency score of 0.53 seconds.

"The average Internet Explorer consistency score among the 22 retailers measured in March was 1.25 seconds," Compuware Gomez says, Internet Retailer reports. "The same group of retailers produced an average Firefox score of 1.81 seconds."

Load speed is critical when trying to make the best impression on internet shoppers. Separate studies from Google have found that slow loading speeds can turn customers away even before they see the website, which is why the search engine uses load speed as a signal for determining search rankings.

A whopping 81 percent of senior retail executives are satisfied with the return on investment of their ecommerce activities and now many are planning to reinvest in their digital store operations, according to a new report from the E-tailing Group.

The report, based on the responses of approximately 150 senior executives, noted that 29 percent of those polled were "very satisfied with their ecommerce ROI and 52 percent were "somewhat satisfied." Meanwhile, 8 percent were "neutral," 10 percent were "somewhat dissatisfied" and 1 percent were "very dissatisfied."

In that regard, many respondents plan to invest more capital in the development and improvement of their ecommerce activities. Nearly three-quarters (71 percent) said they would be spending more on their ecommerce platform, with 27 percent planning to invest "significantly more" and 44 percent intending to allocate "somewhat more." Only 5 percent said they would spend less money on ecommerce.

Key metrics used to track the performance of ecommerce activities include revenue (86 percent), traffic to a retailer's home page (81 percent), average order size (65 percent), conversion (60 percent) and units per order (47 percent).

For 2012, the E-tailing Group believes merchants will spend more money developing mobile commerce initiatives as well.

"We anticipate that this will be a chaotic year with retailers sorting out emerging channels and device growth; yet all the while relying on their websites to serve as the mainstay of the shoppers’ experience," explains Lauren Freedman, president of the E-tailing Group. "Holistic thinking and gaining an understanding of one’s evolving customer will be essential to personalize and prioritize experiences in the connected world in which we find ourselves today."

Reaching consumers through digital means will be crucial to electronic and mobile commerce. Nearly one in five respondents believe developing these fledgling channels will be a top challenge in 2012.

"This certainly makes sense in our omni-channel world where merchants are universally selling on the Internet (99 percent) and 61 percent already have an mcommerce presence," the report added. "Notably from a channel perspective, among those surveyed, 86 percent are deploying email, 54 percent also have a store channel and 48 percent run catalog-based business models."

According to data from comScore, ecommerce expenditures have grown steadily over the past year. In the fourth quarter of last year, for example, Americans spent 14 percent more shopping online than they did a year prior.

European retail merchants looking to improve their operations may want to take a page from Amazon's book, as the online retailer dominates in terms of deals, inventory and customer experience, according to industry expert Scot Wingo.

Wing, who is CEO of ChannelAdvisor, says the key to Amazon's success has been revolutionizing the retail market. For example, one recently launched pilot program features a series of drop boxes installed near two busy subway stations in the U.K. Busy workers would be able to stop by these stations to pick up their purchase, using a code text messaged to them to open the box.

"Amazon has a nice way of figuring out what European shoppers want," he told Internet Retailer. From European web sales alone, the brand generated approximately $16.7 billion last year, up from $12.1 billion in 2010. It also has upward of 4 million Europeans enrolled in the Amazon Prime service.

"Amazon Prime gives Amazon an excellent platform to keep serving up better value, selection and customer service to its best return shoppers,” says Wingo.

New features and services are just one strategy that merchants can employ to streamline store operations. New technology, better customer service, innovative services – these are all crucial to maximizing sales.

Ecommerce retailers have come under fire lately from brick-and-mortar store operations, as well as legislators, who consider the companies' exclusion from requiring customers to pay sales tax an unfair advantage.

The poster child of this battle has been online retail giant Amazon, which has been sued by a number of states, including Texas, for failing to pay sales tax. However, the company is seeking to rectify the problem through an agreement with Virginia.

According to Internet Retailer, Amazon is planning to invest $135 million in two new distribution centers in Virginia. The agreement outlines that Amazon will begin collecting sales tax from Virginia customers as early as September 2013, and the decision is likely to be followed by agreements in Indiana and Tennessee.

"Amazon is very grateful to Gov. McDonnell for his focus on Virginia jobs and for his efforts to work with other governors toward national resolution of the sales tax issue this year," said Paul Misener, Amazon's vice president of global policy, according to the source.

The legislation would not only apply to companies with in-state facilities, however. E-retailers who operate out-of-state but sell in-state would still be required to collect sales tax from Virginia shoppers.

Brick-and-mortar retailers continue to feel the added pressure of online and mobile commerce. According to a new report from ClickIQ, approximately one-third of consumers who use smartphones to research goods while shopping in-store end up buying that item online through e-tailers such as Amazon.

Retail merchants appealing to men's interests may want to consider revising their store operations to be more competitive, as 55 percent of the people using their phones to research were males. Age is another factor to consider – 26 percent of consumers between the ages of 30 and 39 and 25 percent of shoppers between 18 and 29 are likely to use their phones for research.

The research also noted that big-name brands lost the most sales to this behavior.

"The retailers most frequented for research by these respondents were Best Buy at 36 percent, Walmart at 30 percent and Target at 29 percent. In this study, Best Buy had more males do online research in the store than females," the report added.

Some brick-and-mortar retail merchants are fighting this habit by offering price-matching policies for consumers who find the same goods cheaper elsewhere.

Data is mounting that suggests ecommerce is quickly establishing itself as a cornerstone of the broader retail market. Merchants looking to maximize their brand's reach need to own and operate a retail website.

However, simply owning a website isn't enough anymore. Online shoppers have been buying things through the web for a while now and they have little patience for obtuse and outdated websites. If an ecommerce site is difficult to use or feels antiquated, they will likely continue shopping elsewhere.

Fortunately, designing a compelling retail website doesn't take hundreds of thousands of dollars (although it certainly can, if merchants want something cutting-edge). Cactus Commerce recently offered some advice to help merchants enhance the usability of their websites. The key is looking at how customers view a website and designing it based on how they would use it.

"Natural eye movement goes from the upper left to the lower right corner of the screen. The upper right and bottom left areas typically receive less attention unless they include graphical elements that will attract the eye," the news source notes. "Take advantage of this pattern to help guide your visitors into your site: follow web conventions and display your logo in the top left corner; put your navigation across the top, clearly defined and organized."

Another stumbling point is consistency. As people browse websites, they look for an easy-to-understand structure – margins, aligned elements and uniform elements are important to achieving an intuitive ecommerce site. For example, if your front page features multiple items, they should all be the same size and arranged in a grid-like pattern. Misaligned images of various sizes catch consumers' eyes, but also distract them from other parts of the webpage, such as the "check-out" button.

Color selection is likewise a crucial consideration. Studies have shown that consumers frequently identify brands by color. But that doesn't necessarily mean websites should be all the same hue. Rather, color should be used to draw attention to specific parts of the site – for example, a red "buy now" button would stand out on an otherwise white or grey website.

"Being smart doesn’t mean spending tons of money on redesigning every element of your site. Instead, retailers are finding that consistent, incremental improvements help to significantly improve site performance," Cactus Commerce concludes.

According to Forrester Research, ecommerce will generate more than $320 billion worth of sales in 2016 and account for approximately 10 percent of the retail revenues. Merchants need to be prepared and create an easy-to-use ecommerce website.

Retail experiences are quickly converging. No longer are customers shopping exclusively through one channel – customers may check out a physical store only to end up buying a product online, or vice versa. Web-enabled mobile devices add yet another angle to the mix. Retailers need to mix up their approach to maximize their sales.

As recent data from Forrester Research suggests, various retail channels are increasingly affecting other sales avenues. The percentage of web-influenced retail sales are expected to hit 53 percent by 2014 – a time when the web will account for $1.4 billion worth of sales made in physical retail locations.

Traditional retailers need to rethink how they are engaging consumers. It's important to realize that someone could be coming to a store because of a promotion they saw through the web. More than 200 million Americans have access to the internet, according to data from comScore, and this is a huge audience of potential customers for merchants to tap into.

Retail software can be leveraged to help merchants better capitalize on this untapped audience of prospective sales.