Australian retailers are missing out on a massive opportunity of selling by smartphone according to research by Google. 

The search engine giant reports a 29 per cent increase in shopping-related searches year on year – and a staggering 220 per cent increase in retail-related searches on mobile phones. 

By the end of the year, more than half Australians will own a smartphone, yet Google estimates as many as 80 per cent of advertisers on Google don’t have mobile-friendly websites.

One in four searches relating to Christmas shopping in 2010 were made from mobile phones.

“If you asked a business owner whether she’d ignore every fourth customer to walk in her shop this Christmas season, the answer would certainly be no,” said Google Australia’s head of retail, Ross McDonald. 

“But with 25 per cent of Christmas shopping-related queries coming in on mobile, not having a mobile website is basically the same thing.

“The missed potential is huge.

“The first thing is for retailers to have a mobile optimised site, that gives store locations, trading hours and any current promotional items – and that’s going to be really important for Christmas.

“That’s three pages and it’s not very hard to get up and running.”

McDonald said businesses have been surprised by rapid rise of the smart phones.

“This has become very quickly an important part of shopping in retail.

“I think retailers haven’t realised how quickly it would grow and become so important.”

Google says one in five Australian smartphone owners have used their mobile phone to make a purchase, 49 per cent had used their smartphone to research and then call local businesses, and 45 per cent visit a local business they’ve found using their smartphone.