Mobile shopping accounted for almost a third (28 per cent) of 2016 online holiday orders across the UK, France and Germany, according to CJ Affiliate’s 2017 Holiday Intelligence Report. Within this report, the UK accounted for 44 per cent of online orders that came via mobile, compared to 32 per cent in the US, 26 per cent in France and 16 per cent in Germany, demonstrating that many users in continental Europe still prefer to shop whilst sat in front of a computer.
Jules Bazley, regional vice president in Europe for CJ Affiliate, comments, ‘Last year I did more than half of my Christmas shopping on the train, and it’s clear that the rest of the UK is right behind me. I believe that mobile spending will only grow, especially at busy, stressful times like Christmas, when consumers want to do their shopping quickly and conveniently. The report shows that smartphone sales are rising as tablet spend drops; smartphone screens and resolutions are getting larger, and with mobile data more common in smartphones than tablets, they’re just easier to use for online shopping.’
According to the report, which profiles sales made online in 2016 during the holiday periods, orders made on tablets are on the decline in the US and across Europe, with tablet orders in France down by 40 per cent, US and Germany by over a quarter (26 per cent) and the UK by 19 per cent.
Bazley adds, ‘Retailers put substantial resource and planning in to the Christmas peak, but with the continued shift towards mobile shopping, brands need to continuously evaluate their marketing priorities. Reaching these shoppers is also a fine art – email is still the most successful way of reaching them, and interestingly, we have seen a mild decline in the popularity of search advertising.’
The report shows email publishers had the most success in growing share of orders on mobile devices (+53 per cent), largely due to their success in reaching shoppers on their smartphones. Social, content, and mobile publishers are managing to grab both desktop and mobile orders and have a near 50/50 split on orders coming from both mediums. Shopping (-14 per cent) and search (- two per cent) publishers saw a decrease in mobile orders due to shoppers’ continued preference of evaluating and comparing products on desktop.
Further reading on mobile shopping
