EVERYONE’S going mobile and big brands are leading the way by investing in smartphones and apps to bolster sales to tech-savvy consumers.

Sainsbury’s is launching a mobile-optimised site this week as it looks to reinforce sales from smartphones.

Meanwhile competitor Asda is extending its mobile commerce platforms to include an Android app for its grocery business and a mobile enabled site for its non-food division.

The Android app follows the launch of Asda’s transactional iPhone app last November, which allows people to do grocery shopping via their smartphones. The app includes product search, barcode scanner and a voice search function so that customers can add items to their shopping list at any time or place.

The biggest development currently happening in mobile commerce is Barclaycard’s announcement of its latest mobile payments initiative with its PayTag offering, which is likely to affect retail both online and on the high street.

PayTags themselves aren’t exactly innovative – they are literally a sticker containing a person’s banking details that can be put on the back of a smartphone – but it is a significant move which highlights a demand for mobile payments on the UK’s high streets.

By using swipe and pay there will be no need to carry cash and transactions will be much quicker, which will no doubt appeal to high volume merchants like McDonalds and Starbucks.

The QuickTap payment method is also to be made available to credit or debit card holders from all UK banks as part of the roll out. And with internet search giant Google set to launch its version in the UK this year it’s clear that retailers will have to prime themselves for the m-commerce revolution.

As we can see from the host of recent digital developments we may not be far away from a world where everyone could rely primarily on a mobile device.