The mobile market is expected to explode in the coming years thanks to the popularity of smartphones. But for the market to really take off, retailers need to get comfortable selling their wares in the space.

According to an eMarketer survey released this week, that hasn't happened yet. The new study, “Mobile Commerce: Ahead of Its Time," shows that while 70 million American consumers will access the mobile web from their phones this year, retailers are hesitant to sell products to them. That ought to change over the next year.

ReadWriteWeb says that mobile e-commerce is struggling. But is the market really struggling? Or have retailers just not yet been convinced that mobile commerce is an area they need to be in?

Mobile commerce is still a nascent market. In 2008, only 7% of online retailers had an m-commerce site, according to an Internet Retailer survey. And in May, only 26% of eMarketer respondents thought it was very safe to make purchases on a mobile device. Now, just a few months later, people are making all sorts of purchases on their phones.

Accor