Retail shifts to mobile, driving 80 per cent of traffic, half of sales

By Contentsquare July 31, 2024

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Retailers have a key opportunity as they face soaring costs on e-commerce’s most critical acquisition channels, Meta and Google, which have driven up costs per visit by 12.4 per cent – above average by 3 per cent – according to Contentsquare’s 2024 Retail Digital Experience Benchmark Report.

The report highlights influential data and actionable insights retailers can take to meet their customers where they are. Although retailers are hit the hardest, they also have a massive opportunity when considering traffic and revenue trends, especially on mobile, which has become the leading source for e-commerce traffic globally (77 per cent) and accounts for 56 per cent of revenues.

With investments in digital customer experience, data shows retailers can experience massive gains in customer retention, conversion, and loyalty.

“Consumers are strongly voicing their preferences, but data shows brands still have room to meet their expectations,” said Jean-Christophe Pitie, chief marketing and partnerships officer at Contentsquare.

“How does that translate to business impact? What brands are losing by not improving customer experience is material, and business leaders need to ask themselves how they can capitalize on understanding customer preferences in order to deliver value,” he continued.

“The data demonstrates a missed opportunity for brands on mobile. It’s clear that they need to evolve the way they think about mobile and optimize the entire mobile journey, not simply the pages or formatting, so it’s imperative to create more seamless experiences.”

Key data and takeaways for brands:

Despite the growth in mobile traffic share, conversion rates fell 5.8 per cent as shoppers tend to make shorter, micro-visits while using mobile devices, and spend 60 per cent less time per session viewing fewer pages than on desktop.
Easy-to-remedy frustrations, including slow page loads and poor visitor responses, reduced revenue by $0.56 per visit.
- Retailers can combat frustration by combining audience insights with proactive monitoring to consistently deliver experiences that delight their customers.
“Growth at all costs” is outdated.
- Instead of focusing simply on driving traffic, retailers need to shift their focus to improving the overall customer experience in order to drive profitability.
Conversions are 77 per cent higher on desktops than on mobile
Retail traffic is increasingly dependent on paid, as opposed to organic, sources, with paid driving 42.6 per cent of visits and nearly half (47.8 per cent) of all new visits to e-commerce sites.
- Instead of chasing higher traffic volume, retailers’ best acquisition strategy may be a retention strategy. Knowing what constitutes an engaging, satisfying experience that encourages customers to stay, convert, and return is key.
Apps provide a unique opportunity for retailers and they play a critical role in delivering the returning customer experience, attracting nearly four times the share of returning visitors compared with mobile web, according to Contentsquare’s 2024 Digital Experience Benchmark Report.
- Although apps are typically positioned as a means to foster strong relationships with existing customers, brands were able to expand the breadth of their audience using apps last year – new visitors accounted for 15 per cent of all app visits, up from 10 per cent the prior year.