Demandware's James Johnson details ways you can tap into mobile.
One third of all global online retail traffic now happens on phones – a skyrocketing figure that’s up 38% year-over-year, and on track to overtake computers by the end of this year. In Australia and Asia this trend is even more pronounced, with much higher rates of mobile visits than the global trend.
Every metric shows that Gen Z (in particular) is shopping mobile, more and more. Three quarters of the growth in number of visits has come directly from phones. And in what is very big news for retailers, mobile shoppers are doing a whole lot more than window shopping.
The proportion of all online orders coming from phones is increasing a spectacular 59% year-over-year and is now 18% of all online orders globally. More importantly, almost half of the current global increase in number of orders has come by phone – placing mobile firmly in the sights of retailers looking to take the lead and grow with their market.
Mobile acceleration is being driven by the sheer velocity of smartphone adoption. With bigger screens, more digital commerce visits are now on mobiles than on any other device. Technological advances like ApplePay are ironing out checkout friction by embedding payments into the mobile web experience. And excitingly, distributed commerce technology gives retailers the freedom to interact with consumers in channels including social media, messaging and marketplace platforms.
Even when mobile shoppers aren’t actually finalising their purchases, they’re going almost all the way by phone – making mobile data a critical stream of intel for savvy retailers. The latest data from Demandware’s Shopping Index – which measures digital commerce growth based on an activity analysis of more than 400 million shoppers worldwide – has phones accounting for two thirds of the growth we are seeing in shopping cart creation.
A cart is a visible, measurable and above all useful statement of a shopper’s wishlist. It demonstrates shopping intent, and provides key data points for a highly effective personalisation strategy. Retailers who pick up the products left in shopping carts will recognise individual shoppers across different devices and can then use the wishlist products in omnichannel marketing strategies, to finalise a sale.
So, your customers are on their phones, and they’re ready to buy. There are three steps for retailers to be ready for them:
Be where your shoppers are – and look beyond the traditional mobile web experience to native mobile apps and interaction with social media.
Design for the small screen, so that the first few products on grid pages are optimised. Our Demandware data tells us that unless one of the first four products catches a mobile shoppers’ eye, they’ll tap off. So retailers need to design for mobile first, and adapt for other screens.
Use technology to recognise, track and engage with your customers across multiple devices and at any time. Because mobile shoppers visit more often, the purchase is truly a journey. And it’s one that retailers need to keep pace with.