Why Poor Mobile Sites Cost Retailers £4bn in Revenue

Poor performance in areas such as “thumb friendliness”, redirection from desktop to mobile versions and load speed are costing individual retailers as much as 12% in annual revenues, according to a report by website optimisation company QuBit.

Such “basic errors” could be remedied with “minimum investment”, according to the report.

Graham Cooke, CEO of QuBit, said, “Losing that amount of money means that it’s something that they should put high up in their priorities.”

Currently, just 4.8% of retailers have websites optimised for the mobile web, despite the percentage of retail website traffic coming from mobile devices has tripling year on year to 15% in 2011.

The survey also found that tablets are a major driver of mobile commerce growth, generating 25% more page views than desktop users and, for those who go on to purchase, a 22% greater average order value.

However, the greater order value could be skewed because, at present, the majority of tablet owners are from wealthier demographics.