Survey Says Few Merchants are Mobile-Savvy

Mobile browsers are generating 2.8% of overall site traffic and 2% of Web revenue, according to the results of the Forrester Research and Shop.org survey “The State Of Retailing Online 2010.” But merchants have been slow to get in gear with m-commerce strategies.

The survey, released today, finds that only a minority of those polled actually has an m-commerce plan in place.

Of the 84 online retailers that indicated they have a mobile presence, just 20% said they have a strategy, implemented it, and are now refining it. What’s more, 10% said they have a strategy and are starting to work on it, 8% said they have a strategy in place and 36% said they are in the early stages of developing a strategy.

For the most part, survey respondents aren’t doing much about m-commerce. Fifty-five percent said their site is not optimized for mobile, while 35% said they have a special site optimized for mobile browsers.

They’ve got an app for that though: Thirty-three percent said they have an iPhone app, while 8% have an app for Androids and 8% for BlackBerrys.

Merchants said they are investing a significant amount of money in mobile: Respondents plan to spend an average of $170,000 on a mobile strategy this year.

Web-based merchants said they plan on spending $36,000 on their m-commerce strategy, while store-based merchants will spend an average of $244,000. “Mature” merchants – those that have been in business for more than 10 years –will invest an average of $287,000, while young businesses (less than four years online) will spend just $40,000 and medium businesses (four to 10 years) will spend $80,000.