There’s a new concept taking hold for customer service operations of all sorts, ranging from the call center to the retail outlet.

It’s called “omnichannel”, and in omnichannel, the various methods involved in making contact—whether that contact be asking questions or paying bills—are opened up to allow users better ability to use the methods they most prefer. But for United States retailers, the process of setting up omnichannel environments isn’t proceeding well at all, according to new reports from Accenture.

The Accenture studies showed what may be the worst kind of news for the American retail environment: what consumers want in terms of product, pricing and availability, and what retailers are willing or able to provide, just aren’t matching up.

Just 42 percent of respondents noted that it was easy to complete a purchase using a mobile device, and 39 percent said that the brick-and-mortar store experience was in most need of retooling and overall improvement.

As for what customers were looking for that wasn’t on hand, 19 percent wanted an easy way to place orders for merchandise currently not in stock, and 15 percent wanted access to free Wi-Fi.

Beyond that though, there were also improvements requested in the overall integration of the physical, online, and mobile storefront experiences.

Thirty-two percent called for such things, while only 22 percent could say that retailers did a sound job of mobile shopping for tablets. For smartphones, the number was even worse at 19 percent. Driving these numbers is that only 53 percent of retailers, according to Accenture’s reports, are optimized for tablets.

These numbers should drive home one clear point for retailers all up and down the spectrum: there’s money being left on the table here. There are clear expectations for businesses, and when customers aren’t getting needs met—regardless of what platform is being used—those customers will go elsewhere to find what is needed.

The only way to ensure that those customers will stick around for any length of time is to provide the experience that these customers desire, and it’s clear U.S retailers aren’t living up to expectations. This is also a clear warning for anyone interested in competing in this sector: providing what the others can’t or won’t is a pretty straight path to success, all else being equal.

Businesses must realize the growth of mobile commerce over just the last couple of years, and failure to do so will likely result in significant losses. Customers are demanding that the mobile experience be every bit as good as the regular in-store experience, and with mobile becoming not only a means to get information about potential purchases but also a means to pay for those purchases—sometimes even from the same platform—it’s clear that having a handle on mobile is going to be more important than ever.