If you hadn't considered creating a mobile-optimized retail website, you may want to think twice. Omnichannel shopping is growing increasingly more common, and a new study conducted by Kentico Software suggests retailers who aren't optimizing the shopping experience across every platform have a significant chance of losing repeat customers.

According to the research, as many as 85 percent of smartphone owners rely on their handsets to compare companies, products and pricing before finalizing any purchase decisions.

The look and feel of the mobile website experience can influence these decisions, with 78 percent of smartphone owners citing mobile optimization as a reason to make a purchase from a particular company.

When websites aren't tuned for these smartphone and tablet shoppers, many customers decide not to return to the brand in question. Whereas three-quarters of respondents said they would return to an etailer that offered a smooth mobile shopping experience, 52 percent said they wouldn't return as often and 44 percent indicated they would never go back to that site.

"This goes beyond what businesses actually do and sell online," said Kentico CEO and founder Peter Palas. "If their sites aren't mobile friendly, people who are out and about will forge new brand relationships with competitors, and they'll take these relationships back home with them to their computers. When it comes to making and breaking customer relationships, it's all happening on mobile devices."

Unifying the customer experience across channels
Many brands have traditionally viewed the shopping experience as being siloed – the brick and mortar experience is different from shopping online, and online is separate from mobile. This has led to some channels being prioritized and focused, while others receive less attention than they probably should.

However, as the Kentico survey shows, consumers view all three platforms as being part of the same online shopping experience, and a frustrating time in one area translates into a frustrating experience linked to the brand as a whole. Customers view all the various shopping channels as a unified experience with your brand, so it's critical that you treat all platforms the same.

ECommerce software such as SalesWarp can be used to consolidate all product, order and customer data from all sales channels, enabling companies to fine-tune their retail operations to deliver to their shoppers the omnichannel experience they are expecting.