RALEIGH, NC: Businesses understand that simply having a mobile presence is no longer enough but they struggle to identify how they can improve their mobile user experience to meet evolving consumer and user demands, according to a new study.

Mobile development firm PointSource surveyed key influencers and decision makers across four verticals – retail, insurance, supply chain and finance – and found that most (88%) were planning to invest to some extent in mobile this year.

But its State of the Mobile Experience Report revealed that relatively few were able to claim that their current mobile experience approached anything that could be regarded as excellent.

On a ten-point scale, just 21% of supply chain companies ranked their company's existing mobile experience at nine or above. That rose to 23% among insurance companies and to 37% among retailers.

The financial sector offered the best mobile experience with 47% of respondents from this vertical scoring it at nine or more.

"What's most interesting is that companies are investing to improve an existing mobile experience that's falling short of customer expectations," said Greg Ng, vice president/digital at PointSource.

"These findings indicate that companies see the value in providing an excellent mobile experience and are willing to prioritise this offering," he told Mobile Marketer.

And that is likely to continue to be the case for the immediate future: "Sixty-nine per cent of respondents ranked mobile as an eight or above on a ten-point scale in terms of importance over the next three years," noted Ng.

The top reasons for companies investing in mobile included wanting to meet customers' expressed desires for mobile (71%), wanting to expand current products or services (61%) and wanting to prepare for a mobile-driven future (59%).

Retailers' challenges go beyond the user experience itself, with more than half (54%) citing the challenge of finding ways to integrate mobile strategy into an overall marketing strategy.

Data sourced from PointSource, Mobile Marketer; additional content by Warc staff