Mobile / Pureplay
Stamford Study: 74% of Top Australian Websites Fail to Optimise for Mobile
- 26th August
- Neha Kale 289
A new Australian study has confirmed that Australian businesses are lagging in the mobile stakes, with 74% of leading websites failing to optimise for mobile.
It’s no secret that there’s a glaring divide between Australia’s high smartphone adoption rate and the number of Australian websites with a solid mobile presence. Now a new study by Stamford Interactive has identified the extent of this divide, confirming that 74% of Australian companies have not optimised their website for mobile, losing business to overseas rivals. The Stamford study assessed the usability of 100 major Australian websites across industries such as retail, health, media, telecommunications, tourism and transport.
“It’s like having a shopfront with blacked-out windows,” said Stamford Director Lisa Wade “or a shop window where the display is haphazard, chaotic and unappealing. If you’re not mobile-friendly, your customer will simply go on to the next place of business. This is a serious concern for Australian businesses who are simply not maximising the mobile-market advantage, and losing sales to more forward-looking competitors, particularly in the US and UK. The Australian retail industry showed the worst results, with only 26% of its sites being mobile optimal, which helps to explain poor retail sales.”
The study also discovered that half of the 26% of companies that had built applications for smartphones had not made an effort to redirect customers to their mobile app, meaning that the majority of shoppers would have no knowledge of a mobile website.
Earlier this year, a Forsee study discovered that shoppers use smartphones to compare price information, read reviews and double check product specifications as well as purchasing products. Interestingly, it also found that 69% of shoppers used their phone to access the retailer’s own website in a physical store and 46% visited a competitor’s website while in store.
