• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, September 17, 2012

Some 98% of small and medium-sized businesses are not equipped to handle mobile and desktop commerce transactions through their Web site, according to a study released Monday. And I can vouch for at least one large retailer that's not quite prepared, either.

While Nordstrom typically gets top grades for customer service, its mobile site lacks commerce features that would make even the savviest of online shoppers abandon the cart. In fact, it happened one day to me while at the Nordstrom South Coast Plaza store in Costa Mesa, California.

Out-of-stock merchandise on the store floor prompted me to grab my iPhone to make the purchase online while shopping, but too many steps and a sloppy and slow mobile user interface prevented me from completing the transaction. A search on Google and Bing helped me find other retailers and locations that allowed me to make a smooth transaction via the mobile phone.

By the way, the salesperson at Nordstrom tried to order the merchandise from Nordstrom's online ordering via their point-of-sale system. I had to show her how to use it, but it locked up too many times. After 30 minutes I gave up and ordered via my iPhone from another retailer.

The Q2 update of vSplash's SMB DigitalScape confirms companies have not tested features and policies, and many Web sites lack important information. The study found that 76% of SMB Web sites have no privacy policy, putting them at risk of not being indexed by search engines for missing this best practice.

Some 44% of SMB home pages have no phone number, making it difficult for consumers to easily contact them.

And 78% of SMB home pages do not have a Facebook link, creating a break between the company's Web presence and social presence.

Updated quarterly, SMB DigitalScape’s empirical data comes from a sample of more than 2 million SMB Web sites.

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