Conversions on mobile continue to rise as shoppers vote with their thumbs for the channel they want to buy through.
According to a study of consumer browsing and buying behaviour in 80 countries across Q3 2018 by Criteo, smartphone shopping experienced sizeable 10% year-on-year growth in transactions, while tablets fell by 26%. This is in turn leading to the increased importance of shopping apps.
According to the study, on average European retailers that actively promote their shopping apps see 60% of transactions take place on mobile, while also experiencing improved conversion rates when compared to other channels. App conversions (17%) are noticeably higher than both mobile web (5%) and desktop (12%), positioning them as the ideal method for retailers to drive sales and stand out from competitors.
Globally, mobile dominates among retailers that promote their shopping apps. For retailers who actively promote their shopping apps, mobile transactions represented 63% of all transactions.
APAC continues to report the highest share of app transactions among retailers who promote their shopping apps (46%), followed by Europe (28%) and the Americas (25%).
On a year over year basis, in-app share of transactions is increasing across all quartiles for app-promoting retailers.
Retailers that have or are considering a shopping app have good reason to invest in promotion—in North America, the conversion rate on shopping apps is more than three times higher than on mobile web and just short of two times higher than on desktops.
“With sustained growth in mobile transactions in most countries and in-app purchases in all, retailers are well positioned to drive awareness, consideration and conversion through digital audiences. But this doesn’t mean brick-and-mortar is dead. Our Q3 Global Commerce Review found that the omnishopper is one of the most valuable audiences, demonstrating the desire from consumers to have both an in-person experience and the convenience of purchasing online.”
– Jaysen Gillespie, Vice President and Head of Analytics and Data Science, Criteo
