Watch, watch, don't buy: why conversion on mobile is structurally low

Our smartphone is becoming an increasingly important device that we use more and more to explore the web. The percentage of web traffic per device is only increasing for mobile, while that for desktop and tablet remains the same or even decreases. But on which device is the most conversion achieved? We can answer that […]

Our smartphone is becoming an increasingly important device that we use more and more to explore the web. The percentage Web traffic per device for mobile only, while that for desktop and tablet remains the same or even decreases. But on which device is the most conversion achieved?

We can get that answer from figures from the “Ecommerce Quarterly Report Q4 2017” by Monetate. It provides a quarterly benchmark of the most important ecommerce figures, including conversion percentages. The conversion on desktop and tablet is structurally higher than on mobile between Q4 2016 and Q4 2017. On desktop the conversion is between 4,17% and 4,68%, on tablet it is between 3,38% and 4,19%. For mobile these percentages are significantly lower: between 1,54% and 2,03%.

Global conversion on desktop (traditional), smartphone, tablet, period Q4 2016 – Q4 2017, source: Ecommerce Quarterly Report Q4 2017

Mobile for orientation, desktop and tablet for transaction.

Although we surf more via our smartphones, the tablet and desktop seem to be mainly the devices with which we confirm a purchase. There are several reasons for this. The smartphone is a device par excellence en route used, while making a purchase in a webshop is by nature not an activity for in between. But there's more.

ComScore has investigated why the conversion on mobile lags behind compared to desktop. The research revealed the following:

The main reason given for not making a purchase on mobile is that the user experiences problems with the security of the webshop. The other four reasons all have to do with the usability of the shop.

Optimize the user experience on mobile!

So there seems to be some profit to be made with conversion on mobile. And that profit is largely in the user experience (UX) from the site or webshopWe have listed a few tips for you:

Use big buttons on mobile. That is clear and easy to use
Avoid cross-sells and upsells in your checkout on mobile. These often make a check-out page confusing
Make the form with address fields compact. For example, make sure that the information that needs to be entered can be seen at a glance
Use breadcrumbs in your checkout. Then the user knows where he is in the process
Optimize mobile site on speed. On mobile the connection is usually not as fast as at home on the WiFi. Fast sites are therefore essential for a good experience

On to more mobile conversion!