Cyber Monday traffic to major UK retail sites may have dropped this year, but mobile proved a life-saver.
2015 saw a year-on-year average decrease of 6% in traffic to retail websites, compared to the same day last year, but shoppers’ mobile web use greatly benefited UK retail websites, finds a study by SimilarWeb .
More than half of those analysed by SimilarWeb increased their Web traffic on mobile devices. The biggest winners were:
- ETSY.com (42% Year-on-Year growth)
- Boots.com (32%)
- Sainsburys.co.uk (25%)
- johnlewis.com (24%)
- newlook.com (23%)
Pascal Cohen, SimilarWeb’s Digital Insights Manager for Europe, says: “While big e-tailers like Amazon and eBay saw declines in Cyber Monday traffic, consumers were jumping on their mobiles to shop at UK retailers like Boots, Sainsburys, John Lewis, as well as Marks and Spencer.”
The move to mobile provided a much needed fillip for retailers who had expected a bumper Black Friday and Cyber Monday period, only to find that many shoppers stayed away.
The figures also suggest that mobile is gaining growing traction with retailers when looking for immediate bargains on time-specific ‘events’ such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday. It also suggests that many are being pushed to shop by word of mouth, social and mainstream advertising, reaching for their phone as the quickest way to bag that bargain.
But apps are also starting to come into their own. Further research by Poq shows how shoppers used mobile over the Black Friday-Cyber Monday weekend. Analysing the behaviour of 570,000 app shoppers it found that:
The figures also suggest that mobile is gaining growing traction with retailers when looking for immediate bargains on time-specific ‘events’ such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday. It also suggests that many are being pushed to shop by word of mouth, social and mainstream advertising, reaching for their phone as the quickest way to bag that bargain.
But apps are also starting to come into their own. Further research by Poq shows how shoppers used mobile over the Black Friday-Cyber Monday weekend. Analysing the behaviour of 570,000 app shoppers it found that:
• Black Friday beats Cyber Monday – Black Friday generated the most traffic and the highest revenue out of the whole week. Revenue was nearly 200% higher on November 27 than it was for the average time between November 23 to November 30. Traffic was 147% higher.
• Shopping from under the covers: early mornings and late nights were most profitable – Revenues were highest at 7am and 11pm, meaning most shoppers were probably placing orders from their beds. These times of the day drove revenues that were 184% and 188% higher than the average revenue per hour during Black Friday.
• Apps eat desktop: 60% higher conversion rates – Several retailers saw their Poq-powered apps drive the highest conversion rates of any of their online channels. The app conversion rates were generally 60% higher than desktop traffic.
• 2x more app shoppers than mobile web shoppers – One of our clients’ apps peaked at 12,000 concurrent users. That’s twice as many users as their mobile website at the time.
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23 Apr 2025
