A startling 65.8% of the nation’s 4.9 million small and medium enterprises (SMEs) do not currently have a mobile presence; equating to potential lost revenues of £52.6 Billion in the next 12 months alone, according to a OnePoll survey released today, commissioned by AppsBuilder.

The findings reveal that SMEs are not responding fast enough to customers’ changing habits and come amidst a period of unprecedented growth in the number of consumers in the UK using mobile phones to access the Internet, which has doubled in the UK over the last 3 years.

Increasingly sophisticated consumers regularly use their mobile devices to find businesses, purchase goods or services, compare product prices and seek out deals. With an average of 5% of all retail sales coming via mobile, businesses who fail to successfully present themselves to a mobile customer are at risk of forgoing a slice of the projected £50 billion in potential revenue that could come from mobile sources over the next 12 months.

The national OnePoll survey of 500 SMEs uncovered that only 18.4% will be adopting a mobile presence in the next 12 months, which leaves a significant 47.4% of SMEs at risk of losing their competitive edge and failing to harness the lucrative power of mobile for sales as well as customer retention.

The survey discovered that the key barrier preventing SMEs from taking advantage of the current mobile revolution was lack of technical knowledge, with 46% citing this as the main preventative factor. This was closely followed by the perceived cost of development with 36% citing this as the key barrier and 35% of SMEs admitting they were unsure of the overall benefits of a mobile presence to their business.

Results also varied drastically on a regional basis with SMEs in East Anglia (59%) and Northern Ireland (55%) more likely to have adopted a mobile presence and businesses in the North East (19%) and the West Midlands (22%) faring worst. London and the South East fared slightly above average with 45% of SMEs still without a mobile presence.

Of those SMEs who have implemented a mobile strategy, 44% spent up to £10,000, 55% spent between £10,000 and £100,000 and a mere 1% spent over £100,000, showing how the cost of adopting mobile has dropped significantly since 2012 when anticipated costs were well over the £100,000 mark.

 

By Daniel Hunter, Fresh Business Thinking. 

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