Smartphone shoppers increase spending 125 percent, study says

MarketLive, a total commerce technology platform for retailers, today announced the results of its latest quarterly Performance Index report. According to the announcement, one strong trend evident in the analysis of MarketLive's data is that consumers have embraced online shopping from their smartphones – boosting their spending by 125 percent across all product categories. Brick-and-mortar retailers and furniture-and-housewares retailers in particular reported even higher triple-digit increases in purchases coming in via smartphones.

MarketLive said it is advising retailers that the time is now for them to integrate in-store inventory and on-floor sales help with their online commerce websites and promotions in order to capture these online sales.

"Consumers are walking into brick-and-mortar stores with better product information and pricing research than the sales clerks working there. They are literally standing there in the store with their phone in their hands, researching information," said Ken Burke, founder and CEO of MarketLive Inc., in the announcement. "The good news is they are in the store, ready to buy. And the smarter retailers have figured out how to capture these online sales by integrating mobile shopping with their in-store experiences, adapting their marketing programs to align with how shoppers browse on smartphones, and equipping their in-store sales clerks with the tools to find the inventory and complete the transaction."

MarketLive customer Sport Chalet has equipped sales clerks at nine, soon to be 11, of its retail stores with iPads, which they use to help customers compare products, find the right colors and sizes, and complete online purchases on their own smartphones even as they stand in the aisles of the physical store, the company said.

"Our online revenues coming from both desktop and mobile increased significantly over the holiday period, despite a device shift in customer behavior which drove mobile visitors up sharply," said Don Delzell, director of online at Short Chalet, in the announcement. "We believe that customers begin their shopping journey on mobile devices, often in-store, and then use the device of their choice to complete the journey."

Other highlights from MarketLive's Performance Index report include:

• Overall average order value for online purchases rose to $131.71, which is an increase of 1.5 percent year-over-year from Q4 of last year;
• Overall retailer website traffic increased 10.2 percent YOY in Q4 2014 vs. Q4 2013;
• Overall online revenue increased 9.1 percent YOY in Q4 2014 vs. Q4 2013;
• Revenues specifically from mobile devices increased 125 percent YOY from Q4 of last year;
• Housewares-and-furnishings retailers gained 29.3 percent in overall revenues, which included an increase of 121 percent in purchases made from smartphones;
• Brick-and-mortar retailers grew overall online revenues by 25.4 percent, which included a gain of 163 percent in purchases made from smartphones; but
• Conversion rates for shoppers on smartphones are still three times lower than when shopping from a computer.

MarketLive said it advises that merchants need to be aware of the interdependency between smartphones and brick-and-mortar sales, and support customers with mobile-responsive website design, offer social login, align in-store/mobile promotions and carry the store brand experience across both.

Methodology

The MarketLive Performance Index Vol. 27 was produced by analyzing anonymized, aggregated, U.S. traffic and revenue data from MarketLive's customers whose e-commerce websites have continuously reported data from at least Oct. 1, 2013 through Dec. 31, 2014. Orders and revenue are attributed to the last click that a shopper makes toward purchasing an item, based on standard Google Analytics tracking and reporting methodology. MarketLive assigns a sector classification to each customer website in order to analyze performance within different retail sectors; some websites may be included in more than one sector.

The Performance Index results are broken out by retail sector and key performance metrics including average customer visits, average order size and conversion rates, among others. The report also tracks path-to-purchase, cart abandonment data and offers online retailing tips and best practices, based on the real-world buying behavior of millions of online consumers.