While November saw dramatic growth in mobile traffic to retailer websites, December only saw some incremental increases according to the latest figures from Affiliate Window – apart from Boxing Day, which saw mobile e-comm traffic top 50% for the first time.
According to Affiliate Window’s monthly benchmark for December, 44.37% of traffic originated from a mobile device – up from 44.17% in November. 37.35% of sales originated from a mobile device – up from 36.46% in November – with 22.75% of traffic came from a smartphone – up from 22.70% in November.
15.75% of sales came from a smartphone – up from 14.74% in November. Mobile traffic converted at 4.92% – up from 4.77% in November. However, mobile Average Order Value (AOV) was £62.96, down from £66.92 in November.
Android smartphones accounted for 26.20% of smartphone traffic and 26.03% of sales and Android tablets accounted for 40.96% of tablet traffic but only 22.99% of sales.
Tablet devices converted at 6.72% while smartphones dragged down the overall mobile conversion rate – converting at 4.07% – with iPad typically converting at 3 percentage points above Android tablets. And iPad users not only convert at a much higher rate than their Android counterparts, but also spend significantly more when they do.
So, compared with November’s figures it seems that the surge in mobile commerce for Christmas actually began in November, which saw far more dramatic rises in mobile traffic compared to October than was seen between November and December.
However, as has been born out by retailers such as John Lewis , there was a further boost to mobile across the actual Christmas period, especially on Boxing Day as consumers stuck at home turned to their devices – many of them Christmas presents – to start shopping for clearance items.
This accounts for the mobile traffic spike across Affiliate Window’s monitoring on Boxing Day where traffic passed 50% for the first time since the company’s records began.
