Study: Mobile commerce is going in one direction

The results are in, and there is no question about what is happening with mobile retail.



According to a new study of 1.4 billion online transactions during fourth quarter 2015 from performance marketing technology provider Criteo, mobile transaction share grew 15% from the same quarter the prior year. Mobile transactions accounted for 30% of all online transactions in the quarter.



Smartphones accounted for 60% of all mobile transactions in the U.S. According to Criteo, smartphone popularity was driven by the combination of better transaction ability, ubiquity, big bright screens and fast wireless broadband.



However, across mobile devices, tablets drove higher value sales than smartphones, but iOS devices saw higher order values than the average.



Despite the popularity of smartphones for making purchases, the study shows consumers are comfortably using multiple devices, such as laptops, tablets and smartphones, in all stages of their shopping journey. Nearly 40% of online transactions occurred across multiple devices or channels in fourth quarter 2015.



Thirty-seven percent of desktop buyers browsed the same retailer’s site on at least one other device before purchasing. Cross-device shoppers who completed their purchase on a tablet were the most likely to have used multiple devices in the path-to-purchase, with 43% of tablet shoppers using multiple devices in their shopping journey.



Another pronounced trend identified in the study is the growing popularity of mobile apps, which accounted for 54% of all mobile transactions in the retail industry. Shoppers using mobile apps browsed 286% more products than mobile Web shoppers, contributing to an add-to-basket rate 90% higher than mobile browsers. The overall conversion rate on an app was 120% higher than mobile browsers.