Retailers are starting to mull mobile commerce as a viable channel, according to a Gartner report highlighted on MobileEurope.co.uk. Higher-speed mobile networks, improved user interfaces and form factors and other technology advancements are leading retailers to add an m-commerce channel within the next year or two, the report says.

One of the biggest barriers, however, is the question of just how much shopping consumers will want to do using their phone.

"Focusing solely on driving m-commerce revenue will not deliver what customers are really looking for when using their mobile phones during the shopping process," Gartner research VP Hung LeHong said in the article. "Retailers developing a B2C mobile phone strategy must enable a multichannel shopping process as well as driving m-commerce revenue."

Click continued to see some results from the Gartner survey.

The market researcher surveyed U.S. and U.K. consumers about how likely they'd be to participate in various mobile shopping scenarios.

-Mobile shopping is more likely than making actual purchases via a mobile phone. In the U.S., 24% said they’d check prices and only 12% said they'd make a purchase. In the U.K. it was 18% and 11% respectively.

-20% of U.S. respondents and 16% in the U.K. said they'd be willing to receive promotions on their phone.

-In both countries, younger consumers are more likely to "use the mobile phone to conduct retail activities," the article says.