Tag Archives: e-commerce

Mobile Taking Larger Slice of Shopping Pie

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In a new study from Marin Software data shows that mobile devices are now creating more conversions than ever before. According to the study, smartphones and tablets now account for about one-third of conversions on Google (30 percent) and Facebook (35 percent).

Additionally, the data shows mobile devices are pushing more interaction from shoppers in-store, from conducting product research to downloading coupons, mobile devices and mobile applications are an increasingly important part of shopping. Mobile application developers can show you how to integrate these items into your iPhone or Android applications.

Several other interesting bits of data were found in their report, including that mobile ad conversions increased 16 percent quarter to quarter. When it comes to usage on a popular search engine like Google, mobile devices accounted for 31 percent of paid search impressions (Q3 2014) and accounted for 38 percent of the search clicks. On the social side we see mobile devices and mobile applications taking just as important of a role, with one-third of Facebook’s ad conversions taking place via mobile and mobile accounting for 63 percent of their ad clicks.

“While smartphones and tablets are being used more and more by consumers to complete purchases,” states Kimber Johnson, Managing Director, Pacific App Design. “Their real power right now exists prior to the purchase. Smartphones are in an amazing position to be able to drive purchasing as they are so important to the research and discovery process of many shoppers. Savvy businesses are preparing their mobile applications and web sites to fulfill their customers needs and shopping activities.”

In new research from Nelson it showed the most common non-purchasing activity of those surveyed, among smartphone shoppers, was using a store locator (70 percent). Close behind was checking prices at 56 percent and researching items at 54 percent. About 40 percent read reviews, 20 percent used social media to comment on a purchase and 9 percent wrote a review of a purchase.

An interesting item of note from the Nelson research was that when it comes to tablets, each of the activities was performed at least half of the time at home (many of the the  activities were performed over 80 percent of the time), clearly mobile mobile devices aren’t just for those ‘on-the-go’. Clearly tablets are not being being used for showrooming like smartphones are and mobile applications for them should reflect the usage patterns of consumers.

Mobile Driving E-commerce

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Over the course of 2012 we have seen a dramatic shift in how online e-commerce business is done as mobile passed social media and has begun driving more e-commerce traffic by a large amount than we were seeing this time last year. Mobile applications, mobile web sites and the mobile industry are certainly maturing and are a much more prominent part of commerce than they were just a short time ago. According to the Monetate’s Q1 2013 report, we see tablets and smart phones are now driving more than 21 percent of e-commerce traffic during Q1 2013, while last year at this time, mobile was driving just 2 percent of e-commerce traffic.

This isn’t just due to the massive growth of the mobile industry and the wide use of mobile applications and mobile web sites, the Monetate report details how social networks are pushing much less traffic to e-commerce sites than they used too. Social media sites are currently driving less than 2 percent of e-commerce related traffic.

Just as with the the traditional Internet, search continues to push most of the most e-commerce traffic. This is most likely because shoppers are well versed in how to search for products/services online at this point and this skill has transferred over to the mobile arena. Monetate’s report states that search accounts for nearly one-third (31.43 percent) of e-commerce related traffic in Q1 2013. Other interesting findings from the same study are that tablets are driving 10.58 percent  of  e-commerce traffic, while smart phones account for  10.44 percent of e-commerce traffic. Meanwhile they also note that email is responsible for just 2.82 percent of  e-commerce traffic.

Mobile is not the coming thing anymore and any business that isn’t solidly positioned in the mobile marketplace is severely handicapping themselves at this point. Mobile applications and mobile web sites are essential to do business in the marketplace and business that have developed these items in a way to account for consumer usage patterns will have a significant advantage over their competitors.