Google recently surveyed Australians about their mobile phone usage and have published the findings in ‘Our mobile planet: Australia – understanding the mobile consumer’ report.
It will come as little surprise that smartphone penetration rates in Australia are increasing – Australia is amongst six countries where smartphone penetration is now above 50% along with UK, Sweden, Norway, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
Previous research found that 25% of users had used their mobile to research or purchase a product. The recent report shows that 28% have purchased using their mobile phone and a massive 94% use the mobile to research products.
Yet a key statistic in the report is that 79% of Australian businesses are not optimising their sites for mobile usage – that matches up with the research we’ve conducted into the mobile sites of the Australian online retail sector – How The Largest Australian Retailers Are Using Mobile Websites. The research we conducted found only 15% of Australian online retailers had a mobile optimised site.
Researching a business or products on a mobile converts to purchasing via a computer for 33% of survey respondents, but for 29% of respondents, the purchase is made instore.
Surely this is yet more support for the arguments that:
– Online and mobile are not detrimental to retailers but can in fact drive shoppers to purchase online or in store
– All businesses need to ensure that they optimise their site for mobile
– Retail businesses should consider the rapidly changing ways in which consumers search for, research and purchase products
With 61% of those surveyed confirming that they won’t return to a site that feels difficult to use on their mobile, Australian businesses need to catch-up with where and how their customers are looking for information, and ensure they make their business accessible in the devices their customers are using.