Increased use of smartphones for e-commerce

The mobile revolution is nothing new: we’ve known for the past couple of years that mobile internet usage was on the rise, with Google’s announcement that it would implement a default mobile index in 2018 as the final confirmation of this sea change. What is new, however, is the role smartphones now play in e-commerce with shoppers using their devices at all stages of the buyer’s journey, from research and comparison to checkout.

Black Friday and Cyber ​​Monday confirmed the undeniable truth with Adobe reporting a record 39.9% of web traffic to retail sites originating from smartphones on Cyber ​​Monday, with a record 1.13 billion hits. sterling sales made on mobile devices: a whopping 12% higher than previous years.

popular devices

Unsurprisingly from the market leader, Apple devices lead the way when it comes to using smartphones for e-commerce. Figures from Cyber ​​Monday show that Apple users also spent more on their smartphones than their Android counterparts, suggesting that e-commerce retailers could be better served by optimizing sites and marketing campaigns for those. with iPhones.

Number of people accessing e-commerce sites from their smartphone

eMarketer estimates that more than half of all UK digital shoppers transact via smartphone, making e-commerce a significant part of all online sales. In fact, the report suggests that mCommerce accounts for as much as £35.31 billion in revenue. This number is also expected to increase as consumers become more comfortable making transactions from their smartphone and mobile payment options become more sophisticated. By 2021, mCommerce is projected to be the majority source of retail sales and forecasts suggest it will be responsible for 56% of total mCommerce retail sales.

Smartphone Visit Conversions

Despite the increase in smartphone usage and the rapid growth of mobile commerce, smartphone conversion rates can still be hard to pin down, and in some industries, not as high as one might expect. However, there is a similar explanation for this: consumers are omnichannel creatures by nature, and there is a long-established pattern of multi-screen usage.

Mobile conversion rates are currently lower than desktop conversion rates, and figures from Marketing Land suggest that smartphones are responsible for just 20% of conversions. When you consider that mobile dominates actual screen time, this figure seems surprisingly low. What is important to remember, however, is the role that smartphones play in the discovery and investigation process, which drives the ultimate desktop or tablet conversion.

Smartphones are particularly useful in micro-moments with data suggesting that optimizing key facets of the mobile experience can lead to conversion boosts. Focusing on improving page load speed, for example, is critical to keeping smartphone users engaged, while responsive design elements like large buttons remove much of the friction that prevents mobile conversions. .