Mobile retail traffic sees small drop as sales and conversions rise driven by iPad, finds Affiliate Window

According to the latest research into mobile retail habits conducted by Affiliate Window, retail traffic through mobile has fallen for the first time month on month in May 2012. That said, sales through mobile were up to 7.85% from 7.32% last month. The increase in the share of mobile sales despite a drop in traffic is indicative of an improvement in conversion rates through mobile devices, the study concludes.

The iPad has increased its share of sales week on week. In week 20 it accounted for 53% of mobile sales, by week 23 this had grown a massive 11% to 64% of all mobile sales. The rise in sales through the iPad has seen the share of sales through both the iPhone and Android devices decrease significantly over this period. The iPhone dropped from 29.61% in week 20 to 22.90% in week 23. During the same period Android dropped from 13.2% to 9.7%

Despite the drop in the share of sales through mobile handsets, the actual volume of sales through each device increased (apart from Blackbery).

Perhaps more interestingly, conversion rates through mobile devices picked up in May for the first time since February – hitting more than 3% once again. With conversion rates improving, the share of sales through mobile devices increased despite a drop off in the share of traffic.

Apple devices continue to dominate the share of traffic, but the iPhone saw the biggest drop in traffic over this period though – accounting for 33.2% of traffic in week 23. This was mainly taken by the iPad, which saw an increase to just under 45% of all mobile traffic. Android traffic has increased slightly from the 14-16% that we were seeing last month, peaking at 21% in week 21.

This has now settled at around 17%. Traffic through Blackberry has decreased slightly from last month, being fairly steady over the 4 week period at 2% while ‘other’ devices have increased their share of traffic slightly – accounting for around 3% of traffic week on week.

Affiliate Window’s traffic is mainly going to its retail clients. Leading the way with 35% of all mobile traffic is fashion/clothing retail. This is above the percentage of desktop traffic the category receives (28.56%). Electrical retail (13.99%) and Group Buying (10.21%) have the next highest share of our mobile traffic however these are both below the split of our desktop traffic (15.26% and 12.61% respectively).

Telecoms is the only other sector where there is a higher proportion of our mobile traffic as opposed to desktop, yet this is a relatively small share of mobile (5.44%) vs. desktop (4.92%)

In addition to this, Affiliate Window has also been monitoring the split of traffic by sector to see which sectors over/under index above its network average. The sectors that fall above the line are receiving a higher volume of mobile traffic against this network average.

Again, the company sees that fashion/clothing retail is over performing in terms of mobile traffic. As well as being the sector it sees most of its mobile traffic directed to, it is also a sector that has the highest split of its traffic through mobile devices – significantly higher than the average we experience.

Telecoms, Department Stores, Retail (other) and travel all over index compared to the average while Finance, Retail (Electrical), ‘other’, Group buying and utilities all under index.