The champagne is being chilled.
In July 2014, 49.6% of all traffic to a group of 26 retailer clients tracked by Branding Brand stemmed from mobile devices, 34.9% from smartphones and 14.7% from tablets. The 26 retailers together rung up $45 million in mobile sales in July, the m-commerce technology provider reports.
Branding Brand predicts this month mobile traffic will exceed PC traffic for the first time, a major milestone, according to the vendor. Mobile traffic reached 41.6% of total web traffic in July 2013.
Following is mobile commerce activity, smartphone growth and tablet growth for July 2014 over July 2013, at the 26 retailers, according to Branding Brand:
- Visits, 24.9%, 22.3%.
- Page views, 32.7%, 7.6%.
- Orders, 73.0%, 22.5%.
- Revenue, 97.6%, 25.8%.
Conversion rates are up for desktop and smartphone shoppers but flat for tablet shoppers. July 2013 to July 2014, desktop conversion increased from 2.89% to 3.20%, smartphone conversion jumped from 0.69% to 0.95%, and tablet conversion remained at 2.37%, Branding Brand says.
However, revenue generated by both smartphones and tablets jumped year over year while desktop sales fell. July 2013 to July 2014, desktop sales as a percent of total web sales dropped from 79.9% to 73.0%, tablet sales grew from 14.0% to 16.1%, and smartphone sales jumped from 6.1% to 10.9%, Branding Brand says.
Apple Inc. devices still dominate Android devices when it comes to generating mobile commerce sales. 65.5% of all sales on smartphones and 91.3% of all sales on tablets occur on Apple mobile devices, the technology vendor says.
“Our data shows decisively that smartphone activity in retail is surging, with the highest percentage of growth consistently in revenue,” says Chris Mason, Branding Brand co-founder and CEO. “We expect to see the maximum impact of this record-breaking, year-over-year trend hit during the 2014 holiday season as consumers flock to fully-optimized mobile web sites offering exclusive seasonal sales, customized vibrant imagery, and a no-stress shopping experience.”
Follow Bill Siwicki, editor of the 2015 Internet Retailer Mobile 500 and managing editor, mobile commerce, at Internet Retailer, at @IRmcommerce.