Mobile Retail Traffic Surge Predicted

November 7, 2011

This article is included in these additional categories:

Analytics, Automated & MarTech | Data-driven | Mobile Phone | Retail & E-Commerce | Technology | Telecom | Uncategorized

ibm-mobile-percent-traffic.jpgDuring this year’s November holiday season, an unprecedented 15% of people in the US logging onto a retailer’s website are expected to do through a mobile device, according to November 2011 analysis from IBM. Data from the IBM Coremetrics Benchmark indicates that nearly 11% of people used a mobile device to visit a retailer’s site in October, representing an increase of more than 250% from 4.2% in October 2010. Additionally, mobile sales continue to grow, reaching a high of 9.6% of total sales in October 2011, up from 3.4% in October 2010. Meanwhile, total online sales in November are expected to experience impressive growth of 12-15% over the same period in 2010.

Mobile Shoppers Bounce Along

According to the analysis, mobile shoppers will display a laser focus on buying this season, surpassing other online shoppers with a 44.2% bounce rate on mobile devices, compared to online shopping rates of 37.3%.

Android Closing Gap

ibm-per-device-traffic.jpgAndroid users are projected to demonstrate similar levels of mobile shopping as iPhone users for the first time, with IBM figures showing iPhone accounting for 4% of mobile traffic in October 2011, compared to 3.5% for Android. In October 2010, iPhone users accounted for roughly double the traffic of Android users. Meanwhile, after trailing Android users in August and September, iPad users rebounded in October to nudge Android for second rank in mobile traffic share.

iPad Best for Conversions

Shoppers using an iPad are making more retail purchases per visit than other mobile devices: in October 2011, iPad conversion rates reached 6.8%, compared to the overall mobile device conversion rate of 3.6%.

Shoppers Go Social

9.2% of consumers that visited a retail site from a social media site made a purchase in October, compared to 5.5% of all direct online shopping last year. Facebook accounted for the lion’s share of traffic from social networks, with 77%.

RSR: Consumers Force Mobile Retail Presence

A majority of global retailers agree that customers have evolved so rapidly they are forced to have a mobile presence, according to a September 2011 survey from RSR Research. Data from the survey indicates that 78% of respondents agree with this statement, and 35% strongly agree. In addition, 13% of respondents are neutral about customer evolution forcing a mobile presence, meaning only 9% actively disagree with the premise. In addition, 81% of respondents agree that mobile’s best uses and impact have not been fully fleshed out yet, with 24% strongly agreeing and only 10% disagreeing. Only 46% of respondents have completely different goals for mobile shoppers than e-commerce shoppers (9% strongly agree), while 35% are neutral on the subject and 19% disagree.

About the Data: Data in this report is based on Coremetrics Benchmark, which captures online marketing results and commerce data from more than 500 contributing US retailers.

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