Store giant M&S has launched a new website specifically for mobile phone users. The specially designed site allows shoppers to search, browse and buy products directly from mobile handsets.

The m.marksandspencer.com site is synchronised with the main M&S website, which means customers can log on to existing accounts.

The news comes as e-commerce experts predict a huge growth in the numbers of people who use mobile phones for shopping in coming years.

M&S Direct director Dave Hughes is reported as saying: “This is a major step forward in mobile retailing. Mobile optimised shopping sites have been done before by specialist retailers, but M&S entering the market with 21 million customers, one of the UK’s most recognised brands and a well-known range of products changes the mobile retail landscape.”

While High Street business might not be so hot, online sales at M&S have reportedly increased by 34% in the year to the end of March 2009. At the same time, the giant retailer claimed its sales now account for 5.3% of the UK’s on-line clothing market, a jump of almost 1% on 2008.

So it seems that the company’s fall in pre-tax profits to £704m, down from £1bn, could have been so much worse without the on-line sales boost. For while on-line sales were up, M&S witnessed a drop in food and general merchandise sales in-store with a concluding overall sales value rise of only 0.4%, when compared to the previous year.

Yet more evidence, it seems, of the ever increasing power and worth of on-line retailing.