CHICAGO-In the past few years, as iPhones, Droids and “App Stores” have increased in nationwide popularity as more consumers purchased smartphones, retailers have been forced to add a new phrase to their shopper attracting lingo: mobile commerce. As Jones Lang LaSalle puts it in their new report, “Get Mobile: How to Navigate the Digital Playing Field,” those retailers who ignore or wait to seek out mobile shoppers will get left behind.

Shoppers today now demand that, along with offering a bricks-and-mortar store AND a Web site, a retailer must be able to provide deals directly to their phones, says Keisha McDonnough, retail research analyst with JLL. To work effectively, these deals, offered by companies such as Groupon or LivingSocial or sent directly through email, must be specifically geared to that particular consumer’s needs and also pinpointed to within a few miles of the consumer.

To many in the retail world, especially those who have been around awhile, this technological shift by consumers can come as a shock. However, as retailers such as Blockbuster and Borders have learned the hard way, technology changes today by the quarter, and savvy retailers have learned that it pays to keep up.

Non-mobile Web shopping, now almost the dinosaur in the technological sense, is still going strong and gaining use over brick-and-mortar sales. US e-commerce revenue will increase by almost 14% this year to about $188 billion, and large chains such as Best Buy are looking to double online revenue while also reducing physical store footprint, according to McDonnough.

The new wave, however, is in attracting mobile customers who are scanning cell phone maps for local deals. Not only are shoppers using smartphones to buy products online (mostly young people at this point), but consumers also are using their phones to catch wind of local deals as well as find stores and products using applications such as Google Maps.

“About 50% of Americans now use a mobile device to help them shop, find the best deals and read product reviews,” says McDonnough. “Their mobile phone is as important when shopping as their wallet. This demanding yet savvy customer expects more from retailers and their in-store experience, they expect retailers to have an easy-to-us mobile Web site, targeted apps and promotions.”

She says that retailers can engage these consumers by developing a mobile Web site, enhancing shoppers’ in-store experience with online apps, personalizing mobile content based on individual shopper profiles, promoting shopper engagement with interactive ads and allowing shoppers to bypass checkout lines and pay for merchandise with their mobile phones.

Julie Rickey, SVP and director of consumer marketing with JLL, says landlords are also jumping into attracting mobile device users. Mall owners are creating apps and mobile Web pages that allow a shopper to easily find their location, figure out what stores are there and even find current deals from tenants. “It’s getting so that pulling mobile users to your site, and then into your store, is how to drive sales at a property,” she says.