Data from across desktop, mobile web and app data – including two million iOS and Android app sessions that took place throughout Q4 of 2015 – reveals that app users are the most enthusiastic online shoppers, with the average person shopping from an app generating 2.6 times more revenue for a retailer than someone shopping from a mobile site, and 1.5 times more than someone using a desktop device. Customers using apps also interacted with retailers 2.8 times more often than customers using the mobile website.
The research by Poq also revealed some interesting geographical habits among shoppers.
Londoners, it would seem, are the UK’s most loyal shoppers, but also most impatient retail app users, with half (54%) of the retail app traffic in Q4 2015 came from London. Londoners interacted with their apps on more occasions than app users in any other UK region, but they took less time browsing the apps: they drove 140% more sessions, but spent 4% less time browsing apps than the national average.
Customers in the North East and Scotland are the UK’s biggest shopping app spenders, with app users in the North East of England generating the highest average order values of the UK that were some 126% higher than average.
Revenue per user was highest for Scotland-based app users, who were 143% more profitable for retailers than the average app user.
“Results from peak trading 2015 reinforced what we already know: shoppers have become immune to impersonal promotions. Mobile was driving results because it is the most intimate way to shop online,” says Poq Co-Founder, Michael Langguth. “New technologies that enable more targeted shopping experiences will help to significantly improve the way in which retailers engage with their customers during peak trading in 2016. We predict that campaigns that take into account contextual influences such as geography will drive the most outstanding results this year.”
The results come as mobile app data and insight platform company App Annie launches its inaugural App Economy Forecast, which finds that, across games companies, media outlets, retailers and banks, the app economy globally is projected to expand 24 per cent to reach $51 billion in gross revenue across all app stores. By 2020, gross revenue across all app stores will exceed $101 billion globally.
According to App Annie, the combination of steady growth in many mature markets, along with rapid growth in emerging markets, will propel the mobile app market’s continued expansion. While large markets, including the United States, Japan and China, remain central to overall app revenue growth, App Annie sees tremendous opportunity in fast-growing markets, such as India, Indonesia, Mexico and Argentina.
Both the App Annie and poq news comes hot on the heels of research by Urban Airship that shows that almost half of retailers say that between 21 and 50% of their web sales come directly from purchases made on an app, although 23% of IRUK Top 500 retailers currently have a transactional app and 4% have no plans to use apps as part of a multichannel strategy.
Now is the time to start thinking in a more app centric way: here’s why.
