Commentary

Mobile Users Shop From Home

According toAOL, in conjunction with the University of Virginia School of Engineering and Applied Science, 31% of conversions across four verticals occurred while on a mobile device. Over the past year, the cross-industry conversion rate for mobile grew 28%. The industries with the highest mobile conversion rates were telecom, retail, auto and travel.

Mobile Device Share of Online Conversions (% on Smartphone and Tablet; August 2013)

Tablet or Smartphone Activity

Share of Online Conversions

Telcom… purchase new plan or device

37%

Retail… make a purchase

35

Auto… find local dealer; request info; configure car; travel

22

Travel… book hotel, flight or car reservaton

20

Source: AOL/Univ. of Virginia, August 2013

The findings are based on analytics from more than 500 billion online ad impressions and 100M conversion events across all devices, such as mobile phones, desktop computer and tablets.

The rapid growth of mobile conversion rates may be due to the fact that, as a society, we are now spending a significant amount of our total "digital time" at home using mobile devices: according to the data, consumers now spend 25% of their total digital time at home on tablets or cell phones, says the report. And, 75% of all mobile ad impressions were viewed within the home, counter to the prevailing wisdom that we spend the vast majority of our time interacting with mobile devices while outside the home. The data suggests that, as our activity increases on mobile devices at home, so too does our propensity to purchase products and services from them.

Another major factor that appears to be contributing to mobile conversions, says the report, is the widespread adoption of the iPad. 65% of mobile conversions were on tablets, with 85% of tablet conversions coming from iOS devices (iPad.) Android and iOS devices each accounted for roughly 50% of conversions on smart phones.

Historically, advertisers have focused their mobile efforts either on branding or driving the purchase of mobile-centric offerings such as mobile game apps. This study points to an untapped opportunity to drive conversions for a much wider array of products and services via mobile, opines the report.

Chad Gallagher, Director of Mobile at AOL Networks, notes that "… consumers are increasingly using their mobile devices in much the same way they do with their computers when they're at home… with a quarter of all digital time spent on smartphones and tablets at home, marketers… can't afford to run desktop-only campaigns anymore…"

William T. Scherer, professor with the Department of Systems and Information Engineering at the University of Virginia, says  "… we're beginning to get a much clearer view of how consumers are interacting with Internet-connected devices."

For more information from AOL, please visit here.

 

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