37 of the top 50 UK retailers have mobile-optimised sites, according to research by the IAB – but only four have a tablet-optimised site. And only one is currently using responsive design.

Seven of the retailers mobile sites dont have transactional functionality – compared to just two on desktop.

Apps

31 of the top 50 retailers have an app. All of those are available on iOS, while only 21 are on Android.

Just over half of the apps dont have any transactional functionality, meaning that while mobile sites are five times more likely than desktop sites to be non-transactional, apps are 13 times more likely.

Search

24 of the retailers have optimised search for mobile, with nine using ad extensions – most commonly click-to-call functionality, used by seven of the brands.

Its also interesting to note that John Lewis the only retailer in the list with mobile-specific search creative.

Overall

Theres a lot of crossover between the brands which have apps and mobile sites, with two thirds of retailers with any kind of mobile presence having both.

Three brands emerged from the study with the highest score across the the 10 KPIs measured: Ikea, Marks & Spencer, and Debenhams.

“Its great that retailers like these are willing to try out mobile and find out what the ROI is by just doing it,” said IAB director of mobile and operations John Mew. “Its too late for brands to be asking why should we be moving onto mobile. The question now should be why are we not doing it.”