How heavily have you invested in mobile?

If you’re an online retailer, a new report suggests that you may have been investing too much. According to recent research by Forrester Research, as reported in the Seattle Times, mobile transactions accounted for a tiny fraction of e-commerce spending in 2012. The total was around $5 billion, out of a sum $226 billion online purchases. That comes to 2.2%.

There are two differing perspectives we could take with this information:

1. Mobile users simply aren’t keen on making purchases through their smartphones, so it’s not important to optimize for the small screen
2. Mobile users don’t make purchases through their phones because checkouts are not optimized for the small screen

Which statement is accurate? According to one of the research analysts at Forrester, it’s option #1: “consumers have these phones, [but] the number of transactions on those phones is still small.” Fair enough. But, does that mean we should completely ignore the mobile customer?

As ever, the answer depends on your unique situation. We’ve been touting the importance of mobile a fair amount, and it remains true that your site should by and large be mobile-friendly. Some further analysis of your traffic will reveal the extent to which you should worry (or not) about perfecting your online checkout for the smartphone experience.

If you’re tracking your site’s performance (and you should be!), your analytics will tell you how much of your traffic is coming from mobile devices. This really is the best indicator of your need to optimize for the mobile user. If you’re seeing small percentages of mobile visitors, in line with the national trend, it’s a good sign that you don’t need to stress too much about optimizing your checkout for mobile. After all, why cater to an audience that doesn’t exist?

Alternatively, if you’re seeing a large volume of mobile traffic, but most of your transactions are coming from desktops, it may be time to re-evaluate your checkout’s mobile readiness. Consider especially that while 2.2% isn’t a big percentage, it doesn’t necessarily mean that 2.2% of every site’s visitors are buying via mobile. One site could have 50% of their sales through mobile, while twenty other sites have 1% of their sales through mobile.

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Today’s takeaway: do your research on your own traffic, and from that informed position make a judgment call on whether it’s worth the time and money to aggressively go after mobile sales.

Photo Credit: Johan Larsson via Compfight cc