More Than 1 in 4 Companies Outside the US Claim to be Mobile-First

July 21, 2016

EconsultancyAdobe-Mobile-First-Orgs-Outside-US-Jul2016Some 27% of company marketers agree that they are mobile-first organizations, up from 19% last year and 13% the year before, new research [download page] from Econsultancy and Adobe has found. Based on a survey of more than 4,000 marketing, digital and e-commerce professionals (96% of whom are based outside North America), the study reveals that most (62%) company marketers believe that mobile devices will deliver a majority of their digital traffic within the next 12 months.

In fact, mobile devices already account for an estimated 37% of company respondents’ digital traffic this year, a sizable jump from last year’s average of 31%. Additionally, 28% estimate that the majority of their traffic comes from mobile, up from 18% in last year’s study.

Interestingly, while mobile is driving more traffic (and e-commerce revenue) for respondents, the desktop site remains the most important digital channel for the customer experience in company marketers’ minds. Ranking 4 channels in importance when it comes to providing a consistent customer experience:

  • 63% cited the desktop website as their first choice;
  • 22% pointed to the mobile site as their first choice;
  • 13% said smartphone apps are the top choice; while
  • Virtually none (1%) care most about tablet apps.

EconsultancyAdobe-Most-Impt-Digital-Channel-CX-Jul2016

Separate results from the study suggest that the attention paid to the desktop site experience over mobile is largely due to the greater traffic originating from desktops. That’s because almost two-thirds (63%) of company respondents agree that the quality of the mobile experience is more important than that on the desktop because there’s no room for error or waste.

In other words, while the mobile experience is more important to optimize, its status as second fiddle to the desktop is probably because it’s not yet the dominant traffic driver.

Nevertheless, company marketers are planning to follow their enthusiastic growth projections for mobile with budgets, as six in 10 plan to increase their mobile investments in the next year. That seems wise, as lack of resources (including budget and staff) is the single largest barrier to success in optimizing companies’ mobile web and mobile application presences.

Fast Facts

  • Only 1 in 5 company marketers surveyed have a defined mobile strategy that goes out at least 12 months.
  • Two-thirds agree that mobile app and desktop experiences are completely different.
  • A majority (53%) agree that achieving stand-out in app stores is a huge challenge.
  • Some 36% agree that they can optimize their mobile apps as easily as they can their website, though 27% disagree.
  • Company marketers are most apt to measure the success of their mobile apps by examining the number of downloads (71%). While recurrent usage is the next-most common metric, only 46% report using it. That’s a curious result given that almost 1 in 4 users abandon an app after only a single use.

About the Data: The Econsultancy and Adobe Digital Intelligence Briefing is based on an online survey of 4,166 digital and e-commerce professionals, 60% of whom are marketing professionals from the client-side and 40% from the supply-side. Some 44% are based on Asia, with another 30% in Europe and 17% in Australia/New Zealand. Just 4% are based in North America.

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