There’s no shortage of advice when it comes to what retailers should be doing about mobile commerce, but there’s still a question mark over how much the channel will contribute to sales.

Young fashion retailer BANK Fashion and clothing brand Lyle and Scott are two of the latest to release mobile optimised websites, and the list of companies with some kind of iPhone app is long. There are several options and the only thing that seems clear at the moment is that customers are increasingly using their mobile phones at some stage in the purchasing process, whether it’s to find the nearest store or to send a picture of a product to a friend to get their thoughts.

Despite the lack of clarity there are some interesting examples of what can be done with the channel. Retailers report being surprised by the positive response when they try different things out, and consumer behaviour has a habit of changing quickly enough to take them by surprise. Retail Week’s Multichannel Now report looks closely at Tesco.com, one of the companies that has invested more heavily in mobile. The grocery giant claims more than half a million shoppers per month were searching and shopping its main website from a mobile – a 300% increase on a year before that.

Some of the best examples so far have focussed away from the transactional part of the process, according to Iain Buchanan, technical lead at Virgin Media who has also worked with several online retailers as a web design consultant. “I’ve seen a few companies that have produced applications to showcase their products, but without the ecommerce functionality. This is an excellent use of the technology. It’s more like a guide book or catalouge, assisting in the purchasing decision.” He says applications that only work on one type of phone aren’t good enough – there are four different mobile operating systems and handset trends also tend to change quickly, so a mobile optimised site may be the most cost-effective approach.

Some experts insist a significant amount of online sales will eventually come through phones. Asos chief executive Nick Robertson has gone on record saying he expects between 20% and 30% of sales to come through the mobile channel within three years. If he is right, companies need to start investing in making sure the transactions process is easy on a mobile, as there could be a suprisingly small amount of time to get it right.

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