Half of Shoppers Will Struggle On with a Poor Mobile Website:

Around half of shoppers will abandon a retail brand altogether if they have a poor mobile shopping experience, according to a survey by Mobiquity.

Compared to Mobiquity's 2012 study of retail brands' mobile apps and sites, the volume of mobile shopping has increased significantly in 2013, in some cases even tripling. For example, in 2012, 14 percent of consumers shopped at Apple using smartphones; in 2013, this soared to 49 percent. And then it comes to 2013 holiday gift shopping, 49 percent said they they'll spending $100 or more using smartphone apps -- a sharp increase from last year's 23 percent.

Mobiquity's research revealed that issues with the design and user experience of retailers' mobile apps and sites are the leading causes of shoppers giving up on a brand. By comparison, in 2012, slow-loading mobile apps and sites were shoppers' chief complaint.

The new study found that:

• 50 percent of shoppers complained that shopping on retailers' tablet apps involves too many steps
• 49 percent said they couldn't find the products they were looking for on retailers' tablet sites
• Images were too difficult to see on 41 percent of smartphone sites and 35 percent of retailers' smartphone apps

Only nine percent of respondents think that the mobile shopping experience is better than online. By contrast, 35 percent think it is worse.