A survey from Clicktale has found that almost two thirds of British consumers get vexed when mobile apps they are using to carry out safe shopping online suggest products that do not fit in with their interests.

Fifteen per cent of respondents said that they found the entire m-commerce experience extremely annoying, while three quarters said that they became stressed when shopping apps suffered an unexpected hitch, such as freezing, stuttering or failing to load swiftly.

The implication is that retailers need to make significant changes to their mobile shopping solutions in order to overcome these anger-inducing obstacles.

Around a tenth of people questioned in the report said that they were likely to become anxious when carrying out safe shopping online in any scenario, even if the process was going smoothly and there were no real road bumps to navigate.

The study also examined how people feel when visiting bricks and mortar stores, with four out of five saying that they find retail workers annoying. A similar proportion said that they became frustrated when staff suggested products to them that were not related to their needs or interests, reflecting the sentiment that persists in an online space.

Clearly this issue with product recommendations is one which many companies have been overlooking, especially when it comes to e-commerce. Adding a product to a basket on many sites will bring up suggestions, but the fact that these might then put prospective customers off completing a purchase could make the entire system counterproductive.

In a mobile setting this issue is exacerbated by the limited screen space, so it is important for sites to make sure that shopping apps are not quite as stressful as they seem to be at the moment. Since this is impacting the majority of consumers, it cannot be ignored.