By Chris Lee

There are an estimated four billion mobile phone users worldwide, many of which own Internet-enabled smart phones, so the way we shop is going to change forever, according to non-for-profit standards body GS1 UK.

Studies from eDigitalResearch and Portaltech suggest that mobile commerce is now more popular with UK consumers than home shopping catalogues when it comes to browsing and buying retail products. A quarter (25 per cent) of all consumers have used their mobile to research information and purchase products, while 16 per cent use mail order catalogues; 20 per cent of smart phone users make an actual purchase using it, while almost a third use their phones to explore and analyse goods. Mobile coupons are also popular, with Juniper Research predicting that this market will double globally to exceed $12 billion by 2014.

Fragmentation nation

Despite this backdrop of apparently positive figures, Tom Beston, mobile commerce marketing manager at GS1 UK, believes it remains difficult for British retailers to unlock the full potential of the market, because it is fragmented by different mobile devices, mobile and Internet networks, mobile barcodes and information sources.

“Retailers are continuing to develop their own specific mobile applications to communicate with their consumers, using their own data standards. In turn this makes things difficult for consumers,” Beston told NMK.

According to the 2010 Brandbank M-commerce content report, only four per cent of consumers find purchasing on their mobile hassle free, Beston added. Retailers are losing mobile customers as a quarter would never visit a retailer’s website again on their mobile phone if they had a bad experience and 23 per cent said they would head straight to a rival mobile website.

Beston and GS1 believe many of the fragmentation issues could be resolved with agreed mobile commerce data standards.

“Not only is commonality needed for market development, but standards guarantee a consistent and easy experience, they make mobile commerce applications cost-effective and scalable for retailers, and give consumers clear guidelines,” Beston argued.

Good practice

Analyst group Forrester reports that 74 per cent of online retailers either have an m-commerce strategy in place or are currently developing one, so the issue has risen up the corporate agenda. Beston cited some examples of UK retailers providing consumers with mobile-friendly services, such as Marks & Spencer’s dedicated mobile site and Urban Outfitters in-store mobile point-of-sale application, while Co-operative Food and Tesco have both developed iPhone apps.

Beston recommends the following tips for companies looking to develop a mobile commerce strategy:

• Get started now

• Make sure that good quality data about your company and products is available in a digital format based on existing data standards so it can be integrated into mobile applications

• Ask what key tasks customers want to carry out using their mobile phones to interact with your company (finding a store, getting product information, receiving coupons)

• Build a prototype or application  that meets one or two of these tasks and test it directly with consumers

• Make sure you gather feedback and measure results that you can use as a basis for a wider m-commerce strategy