Commentary

Smartphone Commerce: Visits, Revenue, Orders Increase

More retail activity is starting with mobile devices, which is growing dramatically across the board.

While most actual purchasing still happens in stores and most online buying is from desktops, mobile continues to increase its influence on all areas.

Two separate studies out this week provide yet another snapshot of the scope of activity.

Revenue from dedicated mobile commerce sites of more than 350 retailers jumped 114% from a year ago, based on an index from Unbound Commerce. The average value of a mobile order increased 31% to $109 in that tally.

The monthly Mobile Commerce Index for June by BrandingBrand also found the mobile market marches on.

Smartphone activity is growing across the board, with the highest percentage growth in the area of revenue. Here’s the smartphone activity growth compared to the same month a year ago, according to Branding Brand.:

  • 110% -- Revenue
  • 84% -- Orders
  • 74% -- Page views
  • 57% -- Visits

The data is based on a sample of 26 of its retail customers comprising 109 million Web page views, 873 million page views and 2 million orders with total revenue of $291 million.

Traffic from mobile devices continues to increase, with almost half (49%) now coming from smartphones and tablets.

However, the majority (72%) of orders are non-mobile orders, though the market share of smartphone orders increased 68% from a year ago.

Many studies show commerce from tablets being much higher than those form smartphones.

However, in what may be an early indicator, the BrandingBrand index shows the gap narrowing, with 15% coming from tablets and 14% from smartphones.

As a source of revenue, mobile orders also continue to grow, now accounting for a quarter of revenue, up from 20% a year ago.

These and similar recent studies continue to document the import of mobile commerce. This presents the question of how well merchants and marketers can keep up.

 

All the major issues relating to mobile commerce will be discussed at the MediaPost OMMA mCommerce conference in New York on Aug. 7. Hope to see you there. Check out the agenda.

 

2 comments about "Smartphone Commerce: Visits, Revenue, Orders Increase".
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  1. Krillion by Local from Local Corporation, July 29, 2014 at 9:25 p.m.

    While these stats are interesting, they aren’t exactly surprising. Retailers are working on mobile-responsive websites, but streamlined e-commerce ordering via smartphones still hasn’t reached widespread adoption. The average experience of completing a web form via a smartphone is explanation enough. Mobile developers and retailers will continue to iterate on the ordering process via smartphone and other mobile devices, in an effort to make the process more seamless.

    Meanwhile, what are shoppers using their smartphones for? According to our data, the following were the top three things that prompted smartphone users to make a purchase at a local brick-and-mortar retailer - search results listings, customer reviews and ratings, and mobile search results that included product availability at local brick-and-mortar stores.

  2. Chuck Martin from Chuck Martin, July 30, 2014 at 11:04 a.m.

    Thanks for the additional insights, which are consistent with other research.

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