Commentary

Smartphone Shoppers Taking Charge at Retail Websites

Smartphone action at retailer websites is on the verge of taking over.

The latest tracking index shows a steep rise in smartphone shopping activity at retail sites across the board.

The magnitude of the growth compared to the same month a year ago is what caught my eye in the index by Branding Brand. The market share of smartphone orders increased 76% from a year ago and the market share of smartphone revenue increased 94%.

Visits to retailer websites by smartphones increased 101%, orders were up 130% and revenue increased 168%, according to the index. Compared to March a year ago, smartphone activity increased significantly:

  • 20 million smartphone visits (10 million last year)
  • 136 million smartphone orders (59 million last year)
  • $15 million smartphone revenue ($6 million last year)

Branding Brand customers include major retailers such as American Eagle Outfitters, Crate & Barrel, Ralph Lauren and Sephora. The monthly index comprises a sample of 18 retailers across various industries including apparel, health and beauty and home goods. Those analyzed have smartphone optimized websites.

While not encompassing the entire retail marketplace, the index is based on 117 million website visits, 806 million page views, almost 2 million orders and $252 million in revenue. It is yet one more potential indicator of market direction.

The trend of mobile over non-mobile retail website visits has been consistent since 2010, with desktop share decreasing and mobile increasing.

For example, in 2010 desktop dominated with more than 90% of total visits. Today, smartphone and tablet visits accounts for almost half (48%) compared to non-mobile visits (52%).

Consistent with other studies, Apple has a larger share (63%) of retailer website visits compared to those from Android devices (36%). For smartphone revenue, Apple also leads (67%) Android (33%).

Whether or not most retailers are ready for smartphone shoppers, they’re coming.

3 comments about "Smartphone Shoppers Taking Charge at Retail Websites".
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  1. Alexandre DHERSIN from Prestimedia.us / Frenchitude.net, April 4, 2014 at 2:19 p.m.

    Then, the questions are:
    1. " how does the mobile average order value"compares to desktop's/laptop's"?
    2. "how are tablets doing " ?

    With desktop and laptop computers purchases reaching a stagnation point, the share of mobile traffic on retailers website will obvisouly increase.
    I believe retailers efforts to provide their customers with a better mobile website and a more engaging mobile browsing experience explain these trends.

  2. Chuck Martin from Chuck Martin, April 4, 2014 at 2:23 p.m.

    Agree on the idea of some retailers creating more engaging experiences, Alexandre.

  3. Ned Newhouse from Conde Nast , April 7, 2014 at 2:47 p.m.

    This really does have the right amount of data amplification for mobile to be significant proposition for all marketers. I don't want our industry to make the same mistake again like we did with desktop allowing the measurement companies to position themselves as absolutes. Brands MUST make a small investment with HTML5 creative to be storytelling with a fair incentive to the target, they will respond. With that Mobile will get its deserved TV like Admedium faith. Proven that smartphones drive more instore Mcomm than phone Mcomm. CMOs get some charisma, metrics are indicators, not absolutes and realize phones are with us 100% percent of the time. Isn't that what you've dreamed of?

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