According to Internet Retailer, 22 percent of retailers in the IR Top 500 report have a mobile commerce site or application, while only around half of retailers with m-commerce sites have mobile applications.

Of the IR Top 300 Europe, close to 20 percent report having an m-commerce site and nearly 25 percent report having a mobile app. In other words, U.S. retailers tend to support m-commerce sites for shopping using any browser-enabled smartphone, while European retailers seem to prefer using mobile apps to connect with shoppers.

Tom Nawara, vice president of digital strategy and design for Acquity Group LLC, said the difference in approach between U.S and European retailers is “(m)ost likely due to the rapid surge of smartphones in Europe.” Nawara said that almost one in three wireless subscribers in the European Union owns a smartphone, up from just one in five a year ago.

Nawara said that EU retailers are more concerned with brand awareness on mobile devices than creating mobile sites for shopping.

Nawara went on to say that U.S. retailers focus on transactions over brand awareness and how the mobile Web allows them to reach shoppers regardless of the type of mobile operating system their phones use. Naware said, “U.S. retailers are banking on the familiarity consumers have with the retailers’ traditional sites, rather than the new experience of an app, as a bridge to mobile Web conversions.”

Nawara predicts the difference in approaches may balance out in the near future as U.S. retailers adopt cross-platform development solutions, and as EU retailers see the benefit of tapping into the mobile Web capabilities of smartphones.