This Christmas should prove the turning point for retailers accepting that they must have a mobile as well as web strategy to capture shoppers’ attention.

After the last time I wrote about Argos, I had a flurry of emails and comments agreeing that the customer experience of reserving online for store collection is a slick and almost painless customer experience. At the risk of being accused of favouritism, I’m going to use my column to heap praise on Argos again; this time in relation to the web traffic it’s receiving to its site from consumers’ mobile phones.

A report sent to me this morning claims that Argos has been the standout retailer so far over peak trading when it comes to consumers accessing its ecommerce site via their mobile phones. It achieved a 395% increase last Friday compared to prior to the Christmas shopping season.

The figure, from internet mobility provider Novarra, was put into context with the average rise, which was 40%. Still good, but nowhere near Argos’ mammoth increase.

Retailers already understand that their website is not just a transactional platform but also drives footfall in their stores (the high volumes of traffic to store locator and store opening times pages being evidence of this). This mindset needs to be extended if their sites are to attract shoppers to their stores while they are already out and about, and accessing the internet on their mobile phone.

If your website is hard to view on a mobile phone, and especially if it is hard to find information about products that are new in store, special offers and store information, then you will loose out to retailers who are up to speed with the way that an increasing amount of consumers want to shop the high street this Christmas.