Mobile Shopping Focus Report
Actionable Insights from 400 Million Shoppers
Contents
3 Key Dynamics That
Impact Mobile Adoption
6 Shopper Context
13 Shopper Experience
19 Shopping Intent
and Conversion
29 Evolving Your Retail Operations Around Mobile
32 Mobile Is (Already) First — Are You Ready?
35Methodology
As a leader in enterprise digital
commerce running more than 1,500
global retail sites and processing
billions of dollars in gross
merchandise value, Demandware,
a Salesforce company, is uniquely
positioned to offer actionable insights
into shopping behavior.
Introduction
Key Dynamics That Impact
Mobile Adoption
This report analyzes mobile in the
following key areas: shopper context,
shopper experience, shoppping
intent and conversion, and retail
operational evolution. These pillars
represent today’s digital retailing, and
how leaders in the space approach
mobile shopping.
K E Y DY N A M I C S T H AT I M PAC T M O B I L E A D O P T I O N
Why is mobile shopping accelerating at such
a rapid pace?
2.6
billion
estimated number
of worldwide phone
users by 2017
Device Growth: The sheer velocity of the adoption of phones,
with 2.6 billion worldwide users estimated by 20171, has put
mobile at the top of the retail agenda. In a very short time, mobile
has grown from a feature to the preferred form factor. Shoppers
use their phones more than any other device to visit a digital
commerce site. ‘Mobile first’ is not just a part of the digital retail
lexicon. Phones represent the biggest disruption to retail since
commerce went digital.
Decreased Friction: Mobile commerce is hindered by friction
during the checkout process, particularly with payment and
identification. The key consumer-facing commerce heavyweights
are focused on addressing this friction — Apple Pay, Amazon
Payments, Chase Pay, Android Pay and PayPal to name a few.
Phones represent the
biggest disruption to retail
since commerce went digital.
Apple Pay on the Web coming
Fall 2016.
App and Mobile Web Optimization: To app or not to app?
Today, native apps provide retailers with greater flexibility and
extensibility to design great experiences that benefit the shopper,
but shoppers have reserved little space in their mobile lives for
shopping apps. In the meantime, significant advances in mobile
browsers will occur, especially advances in expanding app-like
features and flexibility and embedding payments into the mobile
web experience (Apple Pay for Safari and Android Pay for Chrome).
Distributed Commerce: Retail brands have turned their attention
to interacting with consumers in democratized and distributed
channels such as social, messaging, browser and marketplace
platforms. Mobile is the vehicle for consumers to not only engage,
but also to transact with brands regardless of where consumers
discover them.
1 Source: eMarketer
4
K E Y DY N A M I C S T H AT I M PAC T M O B I L E A D O P T I O N
Key Takeaways
1. Mobile is first – phones now drive more digital traffic than any other
device. (pg 7)
2. Mobile checkout is still fraught with friction, with rates trailing
computers by 13%. (pg 21)
3. Larger phone screens help boost mobile conversion rates. (pg 25)
4. Mobile wins nights and weekends, while computers capture shoppers’
attention during ‘business hours.’ (pg 10)
4. Mobile shopping behavior is upending traditional performance
metrics. (pg 24)
Mobile Now
45%
of traffic is
from phones.
38%
of baskets are
created on phones.
25%
of orders are now
placed on phones.
Mobile Predictions
By the end of 2017,
phones will account for more
than 60% of digital traffic.
By the end of 2016,
shoppers will create more
baskets on phones than
on computers or tablets.
By the end of 2017,
shoppers will place more
orders on phones than on
any other device.
5
1
Shopper Context
Mobile has disrupted traditional retail
axioms partially because shoppers
are more likely to first interact
with a brand on their phone. And
this device is the thread that weaves
together all subsequent browsing and
buying across the virtual and physical
journey. Given this new retail reality,
it is imperative that the following
contextual considerations are
understood.
1
SHOPPER CONTEXT
Mobile Is First in Traffic
DIGITAL SHOPPING
GLOBAL TRAFFIC SHARE
45%
2016 ushered in the next wave of digital shopping, as phones for
the first time drove more traffic globally than any other device in
the first quarter. Phones now hold 45% traffic share globally. This
milestone is not the apex. Retailers can expect to see more than
60% of traffic from phones by the end of 2017. Mobile-obsessed
millennials and Gen Z are driving this shift, and brands that appeal
to this demographic serve as harbingers for the broader market by
attracting a much higher share of traffic from phones.
TODAY
60%
IN 2017
GLOBAL TRAFFIC SHARE BY DEVICE
80%
70%
MOBILE
60%
50%
TABLET
40%
30%
20%
COMPUTER
10%
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
2015
COUNTRY
2016
2017
MOBILE
TABLET
Global
2018
Germany
France
Canada
10%
45%
8%
45%
47%
USA
44%
39%
42%
41%
PROJECTED
COMPUTER
45%
UK
ACTUAL
19%
37%
12%
49%
9%
50%
14%
45%
7
1
SHOPPER CONTEXT
TOP 10 DEVICE
MODELS/FAMILIES
Traffic Share — Q1 2016
DEVICE
MODEL
OPERATING
SYSTEM
% MOBILE
TRAFFIC
% ALL
TRAFFIC
iPhone
6/6s
iOS
27.6%
12.4%
iPhone
5/5c/5s
iOS
19.7%
8.9%
iPhone
6/6s Plus
iOS
6.9%
3.1%
Galaxy S5
Android
4.3%
2.0%
Galaxy S6
Android
2.6%
1.2%
Galaxy S4
Android
2.3%
1.0%
iPhone 4/4s
iOS
2.1%
1.0%
Galaxy Note 4
Android
1.4%
0.6%
Galaxy S6
Edge
Android
1.2%
0.6%
Galaxy Note 3
Android
0.9%
0.4%
Apple Leads
Mobile Traffic
The battle for ‘share of hand’ is dominated by Apple
with 61% of all mobile visits coming from Apple devices.
The Android operating system and Samsung devices are
challengers, particularly in countries across Europe, however
their overall traffic share still trails Apple globally.
iOS
Traffic by
Operating
System
39%
Android
For a country by country view of
operating system, read the
Demandware Shopping Index.
(Note: The iPhone SE was released 3/31/16 at the end of the
comparison set, and is thus not material to the analysis).
Time on Site Is Fleeting
Part of the mobile migration is the constant
attachment and proximity consumers have
with their phones. Since we’re never more
than arm’s length away, the phone fills
the hollow moments that once existed.
Retailers are impacted by shoppers’ use
of mobile during idle moments, as the
amount of time spent per mobile visit has
declined 9% in the past year.
61%
TIME SPENT PER MOBILE VISIT,
IN MINUTES, Q1 2015- Q1 2016
MIN
8.4
8.2
8.0
7.8
7.6
-9%
7.4
7.2
2015
Q1
2015
Q2
2015
Q3
2015
Q4
2016
Q1
8
1
SHOPPER CONTEXT
Extend Commerce Everywhere:
The New Mobile Frontier
1
As the shopping context has shifted, retailers must also be
wherever their shoppers are. This is a period of multiple fronts:
First Front: ‘Traditional’ mobile web experience. This is a
controlled front – retailers are in the process of enhancing and
optimizing this experience. For most, mobile web (not apps) is the
center of their mobile strategy.
Second Front: Native mobile application. Apps provide utility
and flexibility, allowing retailers to create shopping experiences
that merge other phone device capabilities like cameras for barcode
scanning and GPS for location-specific engagement. Recent
reports indicate that app usage is consolidating, and developing
successful brand-specific mobile applications is becoming
increasingly difficult — 67% of users use less than 11 apps per
week1, and 97% of apps installed are no longer on the device after
30 days2.
Third Front: Distributed commerce. Retailers engage with
consumers through apps they’re already frequenting – in some
cases for hours at a time.
2
‘TRADITIONAL’
MOBILE WEB
EXPERIENCE
NATIVE
MOBILE
APPLICATION
3
DISTRIBUTED
COMMERCE
Today, social channels are nascent in their direct
impact on commerce, driving 2.2% of traffic and
about 1% of orders. However, social happens on
mobile. Mobile traffic from social is nearly double
the combined sum from computers and tablets.
As more shoppers turn to
mobile, retailers must be
prepared to engage across
multiple mobile fronts, even on
platforms where they may not
control the entire experience.
1 Source: Pew Research Center
2 Source: AppsFlyer, “The AppsFlyer Performance Index: Ecommerce, Travel and Utility Apps, Oct. 1, 2015
9
1
SHOPPER CONTEXT
Mobile Wins Nights
and Weekends
Conventional wisdom might suggest that shoppers
choose mobile in the morning, computers during the day
and tablets at night. But shoppers proved this wrong.
Mobile owns nights and weekends — the “down”
times — while computers still drive more traffic during
the weekday hours. Regardless of the day or time, tablets
are always a distant third. With this knowledge, retailers
should direct their marketing to mobile.
WEEKDAYS
TRAFFIC SHARE
MOBILE
TABLET
COMPUTER
HOUR OF THE DAY
WEEKENDS
Peak For Mobile Traffic
TRAFFIC SHARE
MOBILE
TABLET
COMPUTER
HOUR OF THE DAY
10
When to Create an App: Tips from Poq
The debate rages on whether to app or not. The question, though, is
really “when to app?’” Poq, a leading app commerce provider, offers
guidance to determine when an app is right. In addition to shopper
visit and order frequency, retailers must consider both omnichannel
integration and shopper demographics.
Omnichannel Integration
One large omnichannel retailer created an app with a key element
that provides visibility into in-store inventory that allows shoppers
to buy from that stock. The project was launched from the Poq
platform and completed in less than three months. It enabled a
fully transactional app, which was built into their commerce
stack and integrated into their digital commerce site (powered
by Demandware), warehouse management system, product
reviews provider and web analytics provider. The app has since
become an integral part of the retailer’s overall strategy, driving a
significant proportion of online revenue. Customers are using it to
retrieve information and order items in store, as well as from home.
Shopper Demographics – The Emerging
App-Only Generation
Michael Langguth, co-founder of Poq, describes the adoption
of apps by Gen Y and Z: “Social media and email are setting the
tone for consumption on mobile. As such, younger generations,
especially generation Y and Z, are leading the way for app-only
shopping. We expect more customer demographics to embrace
app-only, as the user experience on apps is so much more suited to
portable devices.”
Retailers are seeing the benefit of those app visits, with a number
of key metrics favoring the app user. Here are three specific KPIs
to help gauge app effectiveness:
Transactional app generates
2.6x
MORE REVENUE
per user than mobile web
2.8x
CUSTOMERS USING APPS
interact with retailers 2.8x
more often than customers
using the mobile website
• Revenue per user: A shopper using a transactional app
generates 2.6x more revenue.1
• Average order value: The AOV for app buyers is more than 50%
higher than a shopper using the mobile site alone.1
• User frequency: Apps also increase loyalty, as customers using
apps interact with retailers 2.8x more often than customers using
the mobile website.1
1 Source: Poq platform data
11
CASE STUDY: RAINBOW
“Mobile has led to a complete reset on metrics.
Now, we measure and manage the business to
shopper-first metrics, not the legacy view that
was based on visits or sessions.”
David Cost
SVP, Digital Commerce and Marketing, Rainbow
How Rainbow is
Evolving Product
Displays on
Mobile
Rainbow is an 81-year-old moderately priced retailer with more than
1,100 stores and a remarkable mobile presence and understanding
of its mobile shoppers. With a stunning 70% of its traffic coming
from mobile, it is vital that the company effectively present
its product assortment on a small screen. Rainbow continually
explores and executes creative sort strategies to ensure that the
first few products on any grid page are optimized. This focus has
accelerated the process of connecting shoppers with products and
ultimately increased mobile revenue.
Key Mobile Learnings
Since mobile users visit more often, the focus is
not on consummating a transaction in every visit
— it is truly a journey.
Mobile shoppers must see relevant
items within the first four product
images. Otherwise, they will abandon.
Shopping looks different
on mobile, so it is
vital to visualize the
shopping experience and
experiment to create a
great mobile experience.
12
2
Shopper Experience
With phones established as
the device of choice for visiting
sites, retailers must focus their
attention on creating digital
experiences in the mobile context.
Mobile provides a different canvas
upon which the retailer can engage
their shopper — with new challenges
and opportunities. Of note, mobile
provides an opportunity for shoppers
to change their approach to product
discovery and enhance the portability
of items they are interested in.
2
SHOPPER EXPERIENCE
Site Search: The Original Shopping Bot
Amid all the buzz around bots and their potential impact on how
we find what we’re looking for, retailers have had their very own
shopping bot for years — the search bar. For most, the search bar
is vastly underutilized. While search is a wildly productive utility,
converting at 2.6x the rate of a non-search, the search bar is often
relegated to a few pixels in the shape of a magnifying glass, barely
tappable by the average-sized index finger. Search usage on mobile
has been flat over the past year, accounting for 7.4% of visits
globally, while providing 18% of orders.
WHILE SEARCH IS A WILDLY
PRODUCTIVE UTILITY, converting
at 2.6x the rate of a non-search, the
search bar is often
relegated to a few
pixels in the shape of
a magnifying glass,
barely tappable by
the average-sized
index finger.
SITE SEARCH USAGE BY DEVICE
MOBILE
TABLET
COMPUTER
10%
8%
6%
4%
2%
2014
Q1
2014
Q2
2014
Q3
2014
Q4
2015
Q1
2015
Q2
2015
Q3
2015
Q4
2016
Q1
2015
Q3
2015
Q4
2016
Q1
SHARE OF ORDERS FROM SITE SEARCH BY DEVICE
MOBILE
TABLET
COMPUTER
20%
15%
10%
5%
2014
Q1
2014
Q2
2014
Q3
2014
Q4
2015
Q1
2015
Q2
14
2
SHOPPER EXPERIENCE
Unifying Commerce Through
the Shopping Basket
Shoppers have adopted the cart as their new wish list. In
just the last year, shoppers created 70% more carts on phones,
thanks in part to a 17% increase in ‘add to cart’ rate on phones.
Meanwhile, only 3% more carts were created on tablets and
computers combined. A recent survey from Bronto found that 73%
of online shoppers use the shopping cart to store items to buy later.
With more and more mobile users unable to function without
their phone nearby, the mobile cart is quickly becoming a way for
shoppers and retailers to unify online and offline retail. The mobile
cart is the omnichannel shopping companion, as shoppers create
carts and either buy, research or browse in store. And shoppers are
increasingly going mobile with their carts, as basket share on phones
soared from 27% to 38% in just the last year. By the end of 2016,
shoppers will start more carts on phones than computers or tablets.
SHOPPERS
CREATED 70%
MORE CARTS
ON PHONES
Basket share
on phones
soared from
27% to 38%
BASKET TRENDS BY DEVICE
BASKET SHARE
BASKET PER VISIT
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
2015
10%
2016
YOY
CHANGE
0%
-10%
-20%
COMPUTER
TABLET
MOBILE
COMPUTER
TABLET
MOBILE
15
2
SHOPPER EXPERIENCE
BASKET SHARE BY DEVICE AND COUNTRY, Q1 2016
CANADA
MOBILE
FRANCE
TABLET
GERMANY
UK
USA
COMPUTER
GLOBAL BASKET SHARE BY DEVICE, Q1 2014-Q1 2016
MOBILE
60%
40%
TABLET
20%
2014
Q1
2014
Q2
2014
Q3
2014
Q4
2015
Q1
2015
Q2
2015
Q3
2015
Q4
2016
Q1
COMPUTER
GLOBAL BASKET RATE BY DEVICE, Q1 2014-Q1 2016
MOBILE
15%
TABLET
10%
5%
COMPUTER
2014
Q1
2014
Q2
2014
Q3
2014
Q4
2015
Q1
2015
Q2
2015
Q3
2015
Q4
2016
Q1
16
CASE STUDY: JACK WILLS
“Social is influencing the way we
approach mobile, with longer scrolling pages
and more imagery. It is what our customers
value and are keen to see. We’re looking at
additional tactics, and testing horizontal versus
vertical content, making the imagery more
obvious and saleable.”
Dale Western
Head of Trading, Jack Wills
For more than 16 years, Jack Wills has brought British heritage-inspired
clothing of the highest quality to legions of spirited youth, epitomising
what it is to be British, irreverent and carefree.
How Jack Wills
Optimizes
Mobile Web
The typical Jack Wills shopper, aged 19-24, lives on their mobile phone
and is most comfortable using mobile for transactions. In fact 55% of
all traffic to JackWills.com comes from mobile. Almost all mobile
sales now come from mobile web, as the teams plan mobile first for all
page creation and review customer journeys and data.
Jack Wills added PayPal to facilitate mobile transactions, updated its
imagery to portrait orientation rather than traditional landscape and is
enhancing search capability — recognising the importance of mobile
devices for transactions but also browsing for information.
Key Mobile Learnings
Users will scroll to the bottom of even a lengthy
home page. Jack Wills even includes a ‘recently
viewed’ section at the bottom of pages.
1
Designing for mobile
first is the best
approach, then adapt
for the other screens.
Continual testing helps refine engagement. One
example: pop-ups for email collection initially had a
negative impact on mobile but as market adoption
has increased, this tactic will be re-tested.
17
CASE STUDY: URBAN DECAY
“We will be there for our customer, wherever
she wants to be. Any device, any time,
anywhere the customer is.”
John Perasco
AVP, eCommerce, Urban Decay
How Urban
Decay Chooses
Customer
Centricity
Urban Decay is beauty with an edge, appealing to women who relish
their individuality and dare to express it. The company launched
a responsive site in July 2014, and has since fortified the site with
brand-driven content, including calls to action on its product detail
pages. Mobile accounts for 57% of site visits and 42% of orders at
Urban Decay. The company puts the heaviest emphasis on mobile
and desktop development, and views tablets as a “compression”
of the desktop. The company prides itself on developing cosmetics
that appeal to its loyal customers.
Key Mobile Learnings
Focus groups have helped inform
decision making, first by reconsidering
floating calls to action on product
detail pages, and second by
highlighting a frustration that mobile
shoppers expressed: the home page
lightbox used for email collection.
Minimize distractions during checkout
to help improve conversion.
Multivariate testing helps
identify optimization
candidates, especially on mobile.
18
3
Shopping Intent
and Conversion
Do shoppers actually buy on a
phone, or do they just browse?
While order share growth is
outpacing traffic share growth,
the raw increase in traffic still
outpaces, albeit slightly, that of
orders. However, shopping intent
on mobile is rising, an indication
of future growth rate.
3
SHOPPING INTENT AND CONVERSION
Checkout Starts Indicate Mobile Intent
Mobile shoppers are already throwing off clear signs of intent.
Increases in visits and baskets are early indicators. The start of a
checkout is one of the clearest intent signals. Over the past year,
the 4.5% growth in mobile checkout start rate was highest
across all devices. This led to the creation of 77% more mobile
checkout starts, which accounted for 79% of all the new checkouts
started across digital commerce.
Mobile phones still lag the overall checkout start rate by 26% as of
Q1 2016.
2
2-3x
HIGHER
CONVERSION
Retailers deploying native
checkout and Apple Pay in
native apps see 2-3x higher
conversion than mobile web2
4.5% growth
in MOBILE CHECKOUT start
rate was highest across all
devices.
TRENDS IN CHECKOUT START BY DEVICE, YOY
INCREASE IN CHECKOUT
START RATE
YOY INCREASE IN CHECKOUT STARTS
Mobile
4.5%
77%
Computer
2.4%
5%
Tablet
4.2%
<1%
DEVICE
Source: Predict Spring
20
3
SHOPPING INTENT AND CONVERSION
Friction Remains in Mobile Checkout
Mobile checkout success remains elusive for retailers. The 52% checkout completion rate on mobile
was about 11% below the overall rate across all devices and actually fell by 1.5% over the past year. Tablet
devices over-indexed, with a 67% checkout success rate that beat the overall rate by nearly 15%.
52%
11%
CHECKOUT
COMPLETION
RATE ON MOBILE
BELOW THE
OVERALL
RATE ACROSS
ALL DEVICES
GLOBAL ORDERS PER CHECKOUT BY DEVICE
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
2015 2016
2015 2016
2015 2016
2015 2016
OVERALL
MOBILE
COMPUTER
TABLET
21
3
SHOPPING INTENT AND CONVERSION
Best Practices for Mobile Checkout
1. Create a seamless and user-friendly checkout. The mobile
web is no longer just for browsing. To best optimize for conversion,
it is important to create a seamless and user-friendly checkout,
appreciating different usage contexts and making full use of all the
advantages the medium has to offer.
large and
easy to
read font
sizes
2. Optimize checkout to be as lightweight as possible. This
not only means an improvement in performance, but also
reconsidering the information requested from the shopper during
the process. Only vital fields should be included, and input elements
are best following the general guidelines for mobile UI, such as large
and easy to read font sizes, touch-friendly elements with no hover
states and high-contrast colors to support readability in difficult
outdoor lighting situations.
3. Remove distractions. It’s a common best practice to remove
the typical shop navigation once inside the checkout process, but
it’s even more critical on mobile. Users are likely interacting with
your site during a fleeting ‘mobile moment,’ so increasing focus
will increase conversion chances. This also applies to payment
options, where mobile wallet solutions such as Apple Pay, Google
Wallet, PayPal (Express) or Amazon Payments offer a significant
advantage by requiring far less input and interaction from the user.
4. Offer the option to check out as a guest. Bearing in mind the
complexity sometimes inherent in creating an account, especially
on a mobile device, retailers should always offer an option to check
out as a guest.
5. Ensure standard company information is painless to find
and access on mobile. For example, making use of the tel:
protocol for phone number links provides a much easier experience
than having to copy down a phone number. Also, providing a link
to the closest physical store, leveraging Google or Apple maps, can
help to secure a transaction and smooth omnichannel journeys.
touch-friendly
elements
with no hover
states and
high-contrast
colors
Retailers should
always offer an
GUEST
option to
checkout as
a guest
USE LINKS FOR:
Phone number
Closest physical store
Google or Apple maps
6. Accelerate checkout with digital payment technologies like
Apple Pay and PayPal.
To best optimize for conversion, it is important to create a seamless and
user-friendly checkout, appreciating different usage contexts and making
full use of all the advantages the medium has to offer.
22
Reducing Mobile Checkout Friction
with PayPal
Mobile browsing on commerce sites has grown exponentially in a
remarkably short period of time. But conversion has, to put it mildly,
not kept pace. There are several things clogging the arteries of
mobile commerce, perhaps none more frustrating than payments.
Payments are the crucial (often missing) link between a
retailer’s business priorities and a consumer’s desire for a
hassle-free shopping experience.
PayPal believes that the actual payment process should
essentially disappear, working so smoothly with a retailers’
website, loyalty program and other online engagement
tools that consumers focus on the simple joy of shopping
rather than tapping out pages of payment information in
tiny fields.
PayPal refers to the mobile payment revolution —
leveraging technology to reimagine money — as the
rewiring of commerce. Mobile technology can help
retailers fix inefficient or bad experiences and delight
consumers across the shopping journey.
Case in point: PayPal One TouchTM, which represents one
of the biggest changes to online shopping since PayPal
helped pioneer digital payments more than a decade ago.
Unlike other checkout tools that require a login and
password, once a customer opts in, One TouchTM
authenticates customer credentials for up to six months
so people don’t need to login in order to check out.
With One TouchTM, PayPal members can opt in, and choose
to stay logged in on their phone, tablet or computer for up
to six months. You’re always ready to check out faster at
your favorite sites without typing in your password, billing
and shipping info.
Imagine a shopping scenario where a consumer, perhaps
waiting for a dental appointment, discovers a product, hits
‘buy’ and then simply waits for the package to land on the
doorstep.
One TouchTM, available for both mobile apps and the web,
is enabled for consumers after opting in. For merchants,
it is automatically included after integrating PayPal
Express Checkout. One TouchTM has been proven to help
merchants decrease cart abandonment and increase
engagement rates. Based on an Internet Retailer mobile
report , 40% of online buyers said they would be more
likely to shop with a particular retailer if the checkout
process were significantly streamlined.
Phones have created an expectation of, among other things,
instant gratification. For a shopper, there are few things
more disappointing than discovering a must-have item, only
to be hit with roadblocks on the way to acquiring the item.
Thankfully, those roadblocks are starting to crumble, helping
drive mobile commerce to new heights.
40%
OF ONLINE
BUYERS
said they would be more likely to shop
with a particular retailer if the checkout
process were significantly streamlined.
23
3
SHOPPER EXPERIENCE
A New Way to Measure Conversion
Conversion Index by Device
Mobile has turned tried and true metrics, like conversion
rate, upside down. Retail brands should look to new metrics
as shopping habits evolve. Conversion Index (order share/
traffic share) is a useful metric to assess how well phones
convert compared to other devices, and across the
industry. Phones convert at just over half the overall rate
of conversion.
CONVERSION INDEX
DEVICE
ORDER SHARE
DEVICE
TRAFFIC SHARE
CONVERSION INDEX BY DEVICE
1.39
1.26
2.5x
2.5x
The conversion index on
computers is nearly 2.5
times higher than mobile.
0.56
There is hope for mobile conversion, though, as the index has steadily risen over the past three years.
While conversion is lower on mobile than on other devices, mobile conversion is clearly on the rise.
CONVERSION INDEX ON MOBILE, 2013-2016
0.6
CONVERSION INDEX
(order share/traffic share)
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
2013
1 Source: Internet Retailer Mobile 500, 2014 (US data)
2014
2015
2016
24
3
SHOPPER EXPERIENCE
Conversion Index by Device Model
Apple devices certainly carry traffic and order share, but when looking through the lens of conversion
index, Samsung devices — which tend to have larger screens than Apple devices — yield more
efficient shopping visits.
AVERAGE
MOBILE CONVERSION INDEX
0.67
SCREEN SIZE
CONVERSION INDEX
0.67
0.62
0.59
0.58
0.56
0.55
0.52
0.48
0.45
0.34
5.1
5.1
5.1
5.5
5.7
4.7
5.7
4.0
5.0
3.5
Galaxy
S6
Galaxy
S6 Edge
Galaxy
S5
iPhone
6/6S Plus
Galaxy
Note 4
iPhone
6/6S
Galaxy
Note 3
iPhone
5/5S
Galaxy
S4
Galaxy
S4
ANDROID
iOS
Bigger Screens Help Mobile Conversion
A number of tailwinds support mobile order growth: continued adoption of mobile phones,
faster network speeds and, of course, larger screen sizes. In fact, some of the larger screens
have some of the highest conversion index values.
CONVERSION INDEX BY SCREEN SIZE
6
SCREEN SIZE
(Inches)
5
4
3
2
1
0
0.10
0.20
0.30
0.40
0.50
0.60
0.70
0.80
CONVERSION INDEX (Order Share/Visit Share)
25
3
SHOPPER EXPERIENCE
The Path to Mobile-Only Shopping
Mobile order share is growing and on pace to overtake computers. Understanding the current
state of mobile order share is essential for retailers planning their digital commerce investments.
While order share stood at 25% globally in Q1 2016, significant growth is expected from a
number of sources. As phones continue to take traffic share, order growth will follow. Additionally,
shoppers should expect significant improvements to the shopping experience, including improved
payment options, enhanced mobile search and navigation. Continued mobile device penetration
and adoption by additional demographics will combine to create a mobile shopping momentum
that will push mobile order share to new heights by the end of 2017.
GLOBAL ORDER SHARE BY DEVICE
70%
60%
MOBILE
50%
TABLET
40%
COMPUTER
30%
ACTUAL
20%
PROJECTED
10%
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
2015
2016
2017
2018
Order Sizes Swell on Mobile
Shoppers spend about 26% more per order when buying on computers
or tablets than on phones. However, order values on phones are increasing
steadily and faster than orders from other devices, up 6% YoY.
AVERAGE ORDER VALUE BY DEVICE
DAY TIMESTAMP
142
150
141
120
112
90
2015
Q1
2015
Q2
2015
Q3
2015
Q4
2016
Q1
26
CASE STUDY: ROOTS
“The shopper is carrying the omnichannel device.
Whether using their phone to look up inventory in a
store or even browsing our site while in store, mobile
is bridging the gap between online and offline.”
Lauren Teslia
Director of Omnichannel Commerce, Roots
How Roots Uses
Mobile to Unify
Commerce
Canada’s leading lifestyle retail brand implemented responsive
design in 2013, and by 2015 phones accounted for 38% of traffic
(an 80% increase) and 15% of sales. Its approach centered on
design, optimization, enhancement and finally, customization.
Roots has taken mobile a step further than most by leveraging
phones in the store. Shoppers can look up inventory, find a store,
check store availability of a particular item and subscribe for
emails. Its mobile shopping efforts center on driving users to topperforming categories, simplified navigation and reduction in clicks,
and driving an increase in cart creation.
Key Mobile Learnings
In-store inventory
lookup and omnichannel
user experiences are two
key mobile pillars.
Mobile shoppers browse
more than 14 products
before making an in-store
purchase.
27
CASE STUDY: JO-ANN FABRIC AND CRAFT STORES & GPSHOPPER
“The Jo-Ann app is an exceptional example of
the omnichannel promise; the app can really help
consumers at home, on the go and in-store.”
Alex Muller
CEO, GPShopper
How Jo-Ann
Fabric and Craft
Stores Use a
Mobile App to
Engage Shoppers
Across Channels
A key area of differentiation between mobile web and native app is
function and shopper experience. Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Stores
worked with GPShopper to develop a mobile app that is not
only supremely functional but also offers its customers a unique
experience and benefits distinct from its other channels. Indeed,
other retailers have noted that mobile apps make the most sense
when they offer shoppers exclusive features and benefits.
With the new Jo-Ann app customers can:
Add coupons to their wallet and redeem
from the phone or in-store at checkout.
Access exclusive coupons with one tap.
View the Jo-Ann weekly ad
and filter by product category;
browse flyers for deals.
Search for stores that offer specific
services like custom framing or classes.
“We were looking for a mobile app platform that
would be the right fit for our omnichannel growth
plan, and a GPShopper app was the best choice to
connect our customer digitally, socially and in-store,”
says Chris DiTullio , Vice President of eCommerce &
Omnichannel at Jo-Ann Stores.
“We were able to execute a launch in Q4 and, while risky,
it was a success. Our customer has quickly adopted and
is providing great feedback about the new experience.”
28
4
Evolving Your Retail
Operations Around
Mobile
The impact of mobile extends well
beyond shoppers, and has put
pressure on the retail organization
in two significant ways. First, to
design and optimize around the
new shopper context, and second,
to adjust to the logistical reality
of device imbalance. The way
that content is created, shared and
reviewed is primarily on a full screen
computer. That’s very different from
the smaller screen on which shoppers
prefer to consume this content.
4
E VO LV I N G YO U R R E TA I L O P E RAT I O N S A R O U N D M O B I L E
Best Practices for Organizing
Around Mobile
Mobile is the bridge
between the online and
offline experience,
and those who wish to deliver a
unified shopping journey need to
make significant changes to the
organization to facilitate this.
SHIFT THE
CULTURE TO
TEST-AND-LEARN
THINKING and
an organizational
agility that allows
staff to flourish in a
constantly changing
environment.
The impact of mobile on the organization can range from minor
additional work to major transformation, depending on how well
the potential of mobile is leveraged. At its simplest, an optimized
mobile channel requires tailored page layouts to be developed and
managed, more image sizes to be produced and additional QA to
be done for every site modification. This puts additional day-to-day
burden on content production, web operations and merchandising.
However, most retailers would also implement a tailored mobile user
experience, which requires specialist UX design and management.
At the other end of the spectrum, mobile is arguably the trigger that
has made customer-centricity essential to success in modern retail.
Mobile is the bridge between the online and offline experience,
and those who wish to deliver a unified shopping journey need to
make significant changes to the organization to facilitate this. A
key trend here is to move the organization’s analytics capability out
of the typical functional silos of performance marketing or inventory
planning, to a far more senior, cross-functional location. Increasingly,
retailers are embracing roles such as the Chief Customer Officer,
whose responsibility is to understand the customers and optimize
their journeys across all channels, including mobile. Deep customer
insight is key to the effectiveness of this role.
Organizational structures are changing to match the new customer
journey; complex matrix structures that have been common in
the ecommerce world are now expanding to encompass other
functional units. More importantly, the most successful retailers
are driving a cultural shift towards test-and-learn thinking and an
organizational agility that allows staff to flourish in a constantly
changing environment. This is the true organizational challenge
presented by the emergence of mobile as a critical commercial channel.
30
CASE STUDY: BCBG MAX AZRIA
“We’re not avant garde, pushing the limits
of what phones can do. We’re at the cutting
edge of common sense.”
Nathan Dierks Director
Web Operations, BCBG
How BCBG
Creates a MobileFirst Culture
BCBG Max Azria, the 27-year-old high-end women’s fashion brand
named for its founder, is nothing if not practical in its approach to
mobile commerce. After determining that most of its site traffic was
coming from phones, the company redoubled its efforts on mobile,
focusing on refining basic capabilities to improve conversion.
That included improving load times, modernizing its store
locator, updating its iconography, resizing its product images and
implementing TrueFit to help shoppers choose the right size.
In optimizing the mobile experience, BCBG uses a prototyping tool,
called Flinto, to iterate what a new mobile site will look like, creating
a prototype on a desktop, then sending the link to a user’s phone
so they can interact with it as if it were a mobile site. The tool has
been very effective in getting executives engaged in the design and
functionality of the new mobile site.
Key Mobile Learnings
Mobile optimization provides plenty
of opportunities for tactical and
incremental improvements — those
areas are ripe for investing in and yield
immediate return.
Pay close attention to checkout – optimizing
the process plays a pivotal role in reducing
friction, and thus improving conversion on
mobile phones.
31
5
Mobile Is (Already)
First — Are You Ready?
The time to be mobile-first is not
coming, it is here. Those who
choose to delay investments will
not simply fall behind their retail
peers, they will lose. So, what will
it take to win in mobile?
5
M O B I L E I S ( A L R E A DY ) F I R S T — A R E YO U R E A DY ?
Optimize the Shopper Journey on Mobile Web
ENCOURAGE
DISCOVERY
DESIGN A
CONTINUOUS
AND PORTABLE
JOURNEY
Encourage discovery: Mobile web navigation is generally not a
brand’s best look, though it is the predominant form of connecting
a shopper with a product. Innovative retailers will experiment
with site search by embedding visual search elements, including
personalization, into search results and suggestions and pulling
filters into the search process earlier. Shoppers are growing
accustomed to using search on social media, marketplaces,
entertainment apps and mobile sites; brands should adapt
those user experience learnings into their shopping context.
Design a continuous and portable journey: The shopping
cart is a great way to pull a shopper through the journey and
to connect cross-device shoppers. Persist the cart, and embed
the cart contents into marketing channels in order to continue
shopping momentum.
Test and learn: Mobile shopping, compared to overall digital
shopping, is still in its infancy. Retailers must experiment and
challenge tried and true elements like landing page design,
merchandising filters and site search.
TEST AND LEARN
Remove friction in latestage shopping
Invest in payment options to accelerate checkout:
Shoppers are demonstrating their disdain for traditional
mobile checkouts. PayPal’s OneTouchTM and Apple Pay are
accelerating conversion on mobile web and natives apps.
33
5
M O B I L E I S ( A L R E A DY ) F I R S T — A R E YO U R E A DY ?
Evolve the Retail Organization
Organizations must adapt on multiple fronts:
1
First, retailers must
dedicate resources
to creating mobile
experiences, develop
mobile test plans and
improve their mobile
content.
2
Next, they must align
themselves with
partners who can help
pull commerce earlier in
the funnel. Distributed
commerce initiatives
present an opportunity
for retailers to improve
their innovation quotient
but, more importantly, be
where shoppers are.
3
Finally, mobile is not just
for digital. Incorporating
mobile inside the entire
retail organization,
including in-store
shopper engagement,
is crucial.
34
Appendix
Methodology
METHODOLOGY
The analysis for the Mobile Shopping Focus includes shopping activity from
digital commerce sites transacting in the first quarters of 2016 and 2015, unless
otherwise noted. In the most recent period, Q1 2016, this analysis set accounts
for more than 20 million transactions and more than one billion visits.
This global data set includes results from digital
commerce sites across more than 30 countries.
Throughout the report, we take a deeper look
into some of the established digital commerce
markets, specifically the United States, United
Kingdom, Germany, France and Canada. All times
are localized to the shopper’s time zone.
Phones are the focus of this report. Shopper activity
reveals that tablet devices are used more like laptops,
and are thus not included as mobile devices. Mentions
of tap devices include both tablets and phones.
The Mobile Shopping Focus is a companion report
to the Demandware Shopping Index.
36
Authors and Contributors
Authors
Rick Kenney, Head of Consumer Insights
Nadan Fleming, Data Strategist
Contributors
Gunnar Ulle, Director Retail Practice
Julie Rousseau, Industry Principal
Jim Lynch, Senior Product Manager
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