There is a common misconception that people don’t make high value purchases on smartphones. We’ve been working with businesses on mobile led strategies since 2009 and have disproven that myth time and time again. And we have even more evidence to the contrary following a recent project.
Four years ago, our research showed that a mere 0.02% of all web traffic originated from mobile devices, only rising to 8.09% in 2011. Now eMarketer estimates that mobile sales make up 18% of UK ecommerce sales, overtaking the tablet.
Research from Google reveals that 81% of users use their smartphone for price research, 75% of users prefer mobile friendly websites, and 63% of people use their smartphones to make purchases.
This presents UK businesses with a massive opportunity to capitalize on potential customers who are accessing products and services via their smartphone.
We recently designed the mobile site of our client Travelbag. Travelbag identified that, as their customers and potential customers were beginning to access the site on mobile devices, they needed to stay ahead of the game.
As we have worked with Travelbag since 2012, we understand their customers and how they interact with the site. We therefore made the user experience on a smartphone as easy and as streamlined as on a desktop.
Since the launch, Google Analytics reveals that average online booking values are now higher amongst smartphone users than desktop users. This is a first for Travelbag.
The smartphone conversion rate is now four times higher, and the average order value has increased by 71%. Since the launch in August, the highest order value to date made on a smartphone was a staggering £7,773.58.
This is clear proof that if given the ability, your customers will convert using their smartphone in the same way they do using a desktop. If people are already browsing for your product on their smartphone, enable them to convert there too.
Understand your customer’s complete journey, from their initial research into your products or services, to them landing on your site, searching and browsing your products and converting to a customer. If you and optimise it for mobile, tablet and desktop. By doing so, Travelbag have turned their smartphone website users into customers.
[Update: 25th February] It’s worth pointing out that the eMarketer study references tablets and smartphones when discussing “mobile.” The two are, of course, very different devices, though both incredibly prevalent. The smartphone specific growth statistics are perhaps better explained in this recent Google study.