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Personalized advertising company Criteo unveiled its "State of Mobile Commerce" report for the first quarter of 2015 on Friday, showing just how important it is to be mobile-friendly in the travel industry and beyond.
Using its pool of online shopping data covering 1.4 billion transactions, Criteo detailed today's mobile e-commerce sector, revealing some interesting trends in the digital shopping world.
According to Criteo, mobile e-commerce accounts for 29 percent of all U.S. digital transactions today, and 34 percent of digital transactions globally.
The travel industry, one of the early pioneers when it comes to digital marketing, sees 27 percent of its digital sales come via mobile devices, the third-highest mark among all sectors (behind Fashion & Luxury and Mass Merchants).
Travelers now spend $36 on smartphones and $85 on tablets for every $100 spent on the desktop, per the report. However, more transactions are made via smartphones than tablets in the United States overall. Smartphones account for 53 percent of digital transactions across all U.S. sectors now, a greater share than the U.K., Germany, Russia, France and the Netherlands.
So, while the purchase rate for smartphones is lower than the desktop (8 percent compared to 11 percent, respectively), the sheer number of smartphone transactions is balancing the scale.
It's also worth noting that in Asian countries (the Asian traveler is highly targeted right now in the travel industry) the share of mobile transactions and the purchase rate across mobile devices is even more staggering. Nearly all of South Korea (99 percent) and Japan's (90 percent) digital transactions came via the smartphone in the first quarter of 2015, according to Criteo. In Japan, shoppers not only view nearly three times more products on the smartphone than in the U.S., but the conversion rate is also at a whopping 18 percent.
The report also broke down when purchases are made via the smartphone, tablet and desktop computer. On the smartphone, consumers tend to purchase more in the early morning (a 28 percent hike) and while on breaks at work, while tablet purchases jump 40 percent in the evening. Desktop purchases are generally made during work hours (begging the question: What exactly are people doing at work?).
So, what does the future hold for mobile e-commerce?
Well, you could have probably guessed it's only going to become a bigger focus area for the travel industry and beyond.
According to Criteo, 33 percent of digital transactions in the U.S. will be done via a mobile device by the end of 2015. That number jumps to 40 percent globally, and 61 percent and 57 percent for Japan and South Korea, respectively.
Smartphone purchases and conversion rates should also increase. The general transition to a larger screen size and the advancement of mobile payment systems will aid this trend, according to the report.
The biggest challenge-and opportunity-for marketers in 2015 will be to understand cross-device behavior as consumers use multiple devices.
Criteo also notes the differences between Apple and Android operating systems in the report.
To download the full report for free, click here.
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