Almost Half of Ecommerce Purchases Now Made on Mobile
In the UK, almost half of all ecommerce purchases are now made on mobile devices, with the top platform being the iPhone – ahead of the iPad.
These statistics come from performance marketing technology firm, Criteo, which found that 48.9% of all ecommerce transactions in the first quarter of 2016 were made on phones or tablets – up from 43% for the same time period last year.
Despite Android’s larger market share in terms of user base, Apple devices are dominating the ecommerce space. The iPhone accounts for 19% of all ecommerce transactions (or 39% of transactions made on mobile devices), up from 12% for the same period in 2015. Meanwhile, the iPad accounts for 17.1% of all transactions, down from 20% last year. The fall in the popularity of tablet devices is not limited to Apple devices. A similar pattern can be seen in the Android user base, with more purchases happening on phones, and fewer on tablets.
One particularly interesting point highlighted by the data is the number of purchases where the shopper used more than one device before converting. The path to purchase is becoming increasingly complex, and consumers expect to be able to benefit from a personalised experience at each stage of the conversion process.
Retailers should be mindful of the popularity of mobile devices; those who are able to successfully target people, rather than the devices they are using, will fare best in an increasingly multi-channel digital environment. This requires that they deliver a tailored and individual experience that performs consistently, regardless as to the device.
Criteo has also published a report on the future of ecommerce, looking at the number of people who shop on mobile devices and the value of the transactions with which they are involved. It predicts that over the next few years the value of the mobile marketplace will increase from £453 million (as of 2014) up to £2.07 billion by 2019.
The total value of all ecommerce transactions, according to the projections, is set to increase by 14 fold over the same time period – from £54 billion to £756 billion. There will be more people shopping on mobile, and a higher average spend per user. However, and perhaps inevitably, competition is going to increase as well, adding further weight to the need to provide the best possible end user experience.