M-commerce is disappointing British consumers

The mobile shopping experience is falling short of what people in the United Kingdom expect.

A recent study is showing that about half of all people in the United Kingdom who have tried m-commerce find that the shopping experience over that channel is falling short of their expectations.

Nearly 50 percent of the participants of a U.K. study said that their expectations are not being met.

The survey results showed that among people from the United Kingdom who use m-commerce for shopping, the ways in which the experience was falling short of their expectations were in the speed of use (49 percent) and in the failure to provide simple, functional and practical navigation on a site (48 percent).

The study determined that m-commerce may be able to do better if the experience was improved.

The study was called “Mobile Commerce: What consumers really want”. It was conducted by EPiServer and it also showed that among consumers in the United Kingdom, 54 percent will give up on an m-commerce website and leave if they find that they are experiencing any difficulties in using it.

According to the EPiServer product manager, David Bowen, “Our research shows that mobile devices are becoming the first choice for accessing a website or app, regardless of location.” He also went on to say that the result of this is that the m-commerce experience is growing in its importance for the web strategy of virtually any business.

Bowen pointed out that today’s consumer is mobile savvy and will not be as forgiving if m-commerce websites and apps fail to provide the functionality that they would expect to receive when using a website on their desktop computers. He stated that “mobile first” is quickly becoming the strategy to choose when it comes to any business that intends to use smartphones and tablets as a part of any element of its selling – from providing product information to business locators, or actually purchasing a product.

The m-commerce research indicated that nearly two out of every three participants accessed websites using their smartphones every day. However, at the same time 28 percent said that they would choose a competitor company if they experienced struggles using their first choice.