Top mobile shopping websites in the UK

Debenhams, Expedia and Argos have come out on top when it comes to mobile commerce, according to a new usability study.

EPiServer’s second UK Mobile Commerce study, compares new research into the expectations of mobile shoppers, carried out among 1,000 adults, with the benchmark assessment of 30 top UK retailers’ mobile websites and apps.
The study indicates that retailers are working harder to meet rising consumer expectations as mobile becomes an increasingly important part of their digital marketing mix, with an encouraging average score of 55%, improving from 2011’s score of 47% across the top online retailers.
One significant improvement over the last study is in the number of retailers offering an optimised mobile site experience, revealing the increasing focus on mobile sites over apps only. In 2011 30% of the top 10 didn’t have mobile sites, now, only 17% of the top 30 do not.
The EPiServer report, entitled ‘Mobile commerce: what consumers really want’, is available to download from www.episerver.com/m-commerce. It compares new research into the expectations and behaviour of mobile shoppers, carried out among 1,000 adults, with the benchmark assessment of the top UK retailers’ mobile websites and apps to see just how many are meeting the expectations of today’s increasingly mobilised consumer.
The 30 retailers have been benchmarked across criteria relating to their mobile offering, spanning native apps, mobile sites, tablet offerings and rating them on speed, key functionality and ease of use.
Debenhams has toppled Argos off the top spot this year with a very impressive 90%, although Argos continued to perform well, improving its previous score by achieving 85%, placing it joint second with newcomer Expedia.
The overall average score of 55%, despite showing an improvement on 2011, still indicates that there is significant room for improvement for retailers to live up to customer expectations.
The top 10 performing retailers were:
1. Debenhams – 90%
=2. Expedia, Argos – 85%
3. Tesco – 80%
4. Amazon UK – 80%
5. IKEA – 74%
6. ASOS – 72%
=7. John Lewis, Topshop – 71%
8. ASDA – 68%
David Bowen, Product Manager, EPiServer, commented, “It is clear that over the last two years retailers have strived to grasp the mobile opportunity. Top performer Debenhams in particular is a great example of how having a solution for each platform and offering a contextualised mobile experience across each is the winning formula for delivering a premium customer experience, and ultimately increasing conversions and sales.”
*Selected from the IMRG Experian Hitwise Hot Shops list
Methodology
The consumer survey was conducted by OnePoll in March 2013 and consulted 1,000 UK consumers. The results of answers to the questions were translated into percentage values.
The retail benchmark study was conducted by EPiServer in March 2013. A weighting has been applied to the scores achieved by each retailer to award each one an overall score out of 510.
The scoring was based on the following:
• Does the company have a mobile-enabled website?
• Does this appear automatically on a mobile device?
• Does the company have an iPhone app?
• Does the company have an iPad app?
• Does the company have an Android app?
• For each of the above:
o Is the site/app easy to use?
o Does it load quickly?
o Does the width of the screen fit the device?
o Does the page navigate up and down instead of left and right?
o Is essential information easy to find (e.g. customer service numbers)?
o Are a map and/or directions easy to find?
o Does it support zooming?
o Are text boxes and the amount of typing on the page kept to a minimum?
o Does it match the look and feel of the main site?
o Are the calls to action (buttons or links) large/clear enough to see on the screen?
o Does the mobile site give the option to switch to the normal (desktop) version of the site?
Source: EPiServer