Yesterday, Cyber Monday, marked the start of the virtual Christmas shopping season, and according to retail technology specialist One iota, it appears mobile will have played an important role. Indeed, according to a recent study into eCommerce by One iota, the Christmas trading period of 2011 will be remembered as the year retailers finally started to wake up to the power of mobile.

The research – One iota analysed the social and mobile commerce sites of the Annual IMRG/Hitwise HOT 100 in November 2011 – revealed a dramatic jump in mobile commerce adoption. Of the UK’s top 100 retailers, 42 per cent have now gone mobile, up from just 26 per cent in June this year and a mere 20 per cent in January 2011.

The research also showed solid growth in the number of retailers establishing a brand presence on Facebook. Nine out of 10 retailers in the top 100 now have a presence on Facebook, up from 75 per cent in June 2011.

There was also significant growth in the number of retailers who are implementing transactional Facebook stores. While ASOS led the pack at the start of the year, there has since been a massive increase in social commerce uptake – seven per cent of all retailers now have a transactional presence on Facebook.

“It isn’t a major shock to see such a jump in mobile take-up, particularly as we are now in the busy Christmas trading season,” notes One iota CEO, Damian Hanson. “It’s a critical period, and shows that growth in mobile can no longer be ignored. For most of our clients, mobile now accounts for over 10 per cent of their traffic.”

Hanson believes that the combination of social media and mobile technology will become one of the key areas of focus and investment in 2012. “While many retailers are starting to get out of the blocks with their strategies, they now need to make these channels work effectively for them in order to establish ROI,” he says. “We’ve seen many ‘quick fix’ solutions adopted on mobile, and many retailers have simply taken the basic stepping stone into mobile by scraping existing online sites. 2012 will be the year where retailers need to think more about how their social, mobile and local shopping journey properly integrates for a longer term approach, as shoppers demand fantastic experiences across every channel they shop.”