Mobile Dominated Online Ordering By End Of 2017

Mobile traffic and mobile orders hit new highs during the fourth quarter, based on Salesforce’s fourth-quarter shopping index.

According to a report in Footwear News, during the last three months of 2017, mobile traffic hit a high of 60 percent, while mobile orders reached 39 percent. At the same time, computer traffic declined 33 percent and orders from computers dipped 51 percent. The index also revealed that traffic and orders on tablets remained flat at 7 percent and 10 percent, respectively.

“Mobile is on the cusp of becoming not only [the] biggest traffic driver to retail sites, but also the biggest avenue for placing orders,” said Caila Schwartz, senior industry strategist at Salesforce Commerce Cloud. “The growth values are even more staggering – all of the growth in traffic and orders came from mobile.”

While computer and tablet orders saw declines during the last month of the year, the jump in mobile orders and traffic underscores consumers’ preference to use mobile devices to search the web and shop. “The message could not be more clear: Retailers’ roadmaps should begin and end with optimizing everything – everything – for mobile,” Schwartz added.

Salesforce, which pulls data from 796 digital commerce sites from 38 countries for its quarterly index, also found that during the fourth quarter, shoppers showed a record level of buying intent, with 18 percent of web traffic indicating shopping-oriented behaviors. The number of visits that actually led to consumers making purchases increased 10 percent across all devices, noted the report.