Despite rapid growth among mobile internet users and demand for mobile commerce (mcommerce) sites, the majority of retailers around the world don’t have an mcommerce strategy in place, a report from SLI Systems has revealed.

More than 400 online retailers from Australia, US, Europe, Asia and New Zealand took part in SLI Systems’ survey, which indicated that up to 80% of ecommerce companies are yet to adopt a strategy to support the needs of mobile shoppers.

“What’s most interesting about the findings is that 56% of the businesses we surveyed believe that a mobile commerce strategy is very important or important to their overall business success, and yet there’s that large percentage that are yet to implement a mobile marketing strategy to support this belief.” Shaun Ryan, CEO of SLI Systems, explains.

However, 83% of ecommerce organisations say up to 10% of visitors access their sites from mobile browsers, while 12% cite that they get to their sites through the mobile web.

These numbers are expected to grow, with 85% of new mobile handsets equipped to browse the internet according to Gartner research.

Other findings from the report also include:

• 56% believe a mobile commerce strategy is very important or important to their overall business

• 38% agree that mcommerce compatibility is important for driving sales

• 70% plan to embark on an m-commerce strategy within the next two years

• 51% of ecommerce companies do not consider the iPad to be a mobile device (they say iPad users can utilise their current website); but 31% will direct iPad to their mobile site

• 79% say site search is important to a mobile website strategy and 61% are confident site search capabilities on a mobile site will generate additional conversions

• The top four features online retailers cite as the most important to enhancing the mcommerce experience are navigation, site search, product pages and product reviews, and

• For companies looking to build their mcommerce sites, 31% will utilise in-house resources, 28% will outsource the work to a third party developer, 36% will use a combination of both in-house and outsourced resources and the remainder are unsure.