Mobile visits to retail websites reach tipping point
Visits to retail websites via mobile devices have overtaken desktop traffic for the first time ever, new figures show.
The latest IMRG Capgemini Quarterly Benchmarking Report has revealed that while 52% of visits came from mobile from May to July 2014, 36% of UK online sales were completed on a smartphone or tablet device – a figure that rises to 40% for clothing and apparel merchants.
Of sales completed on a mobile device, smartphones accounted for around 18%, while tablets accounted for 82%.
The report’s other findings show that visitor bounce rates rose to 28% in the period, up from 25% in the previous quarter. IMRG and Capgemini said the rise was likely to be the result of increased mobile traffic.
In addition, checkout abandonment rate reached a record low of 27%, down from 36% in the previous three month period.
Tina Spooner, chief information officer at IMRG, said: “Considering that as recently as 2010 mobile visits to e-retail sites accounted for less than 3% of traffic, this latest milestone represents staggering growth of 2,000% over the past four years. These results clearly demonstrate that retailers’ investment in mobile optimisation is encouraging consumers to adopt mobile devices as a shopping platform.”
The report also revealed that the total estimated online spend during the three month period was £24.2 billion, with £8.7 billion spent via smartphones and tablet devices.
Alex Smith-Bingham, vice president and digital devices leader at Capgemini, said: “As retailers further develop their m-commerce platforms and as the technology becomes increasingly more sophisticated, we’ll see the role of the desktop in our day-to-day shopping cycle diminish. It will be very interesting to see just how wide the gap between mobile and traditional e-retail will become in 12 months’ time.”
