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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” from Monetate. Every quarter, it publishes a benchmark of the most important ecommerce figures, including conversion rates. The conversion on desktop and tablet was structurally higher between Q4 2016 and Q4 2017 than on mobile. 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 conversion on mobile lags behind compared to desktop. The following emerged from that research:

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 still seems to be profit to be made from conversion on mobile. And that profit is largely in the user experience (UX) of the site or shop. We 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 your mobile site for speed. On mobile, the connection is usually not as fast as WiFi at home. Fast sites are therefore essential for a good experience

On to more mobile conversion!