Article

Joydeep Bhattacharya
Joydeep Bhattacharya 20 November 2019
Categories Research

More Sales Come from Desktop Users Than Mobile

It’s a known fact that the world has more mobile users than desktop PC or laptop users. But, you might be amazed to know that mobile users are not potential buyers.

Research on users’ behavior was conducted, and when the report was published, the results were quite amazing. According to Wolfgang Digital's KPI Report 2019, most of the web traffic, i.e., about 53% on the websites were coming from mobile phones and smartphone devices, but these 53% were generating only 32% of the total sales revenue. 

If we compare mobile phone users’ engagement figures with previous years, we find out that the total percentage of revenue and buying trends from mobile phone users is increasing every year. Mobile phone users are becoming now more potential buyers, but still, desktop users are on the lead with a big margin.

Over a third (37%) of total web traffic, as per the report, was coming from desktop users, which clearly indicates that people are browsing the web from mobile devices rather than their PCs or laptops. But if you have an ecommerce business, you shouldn’t underestimate this 37% because these are the guys who give you about 56% of total sales. Isn’t is that amazing fact?

Why is it so? Let’s have a look

Let's take a closer look at the breakdown of the data and the figures. Mobile users are usually individuals, and they often buy retail products like fashion and clothing, jewelry, accessories, books, small home décor items, consumer electronic items, and appliances, etc. 

Average Order Value

Most of the retail items purchased by the mobile phone users cost less than a grand. So, when we see the total retail sales, reports are satisfactory because the average retail order value is about $134.36, while the overall average online order value is about $311.67.

Bigger Details for Bigger Orders

We observed that when users have to buy something expensive, they often do research before purchasing, and most of the rate comparison sites are better viewed on desktop. Let’s take the example of travel and hotel websites. 

Booking hotel rooms, air tickets, or travel packages is something expensive, and most of the buyers love to compare rates before making a purchase. And when we look at the traffic stats for hotel and travel websites, we find out that traffic on these websites is almost the same from mobile and desktop, but there’s a huge difference in the revenue.

Out of total online sales in hotels and travel sites, about 66% of sales come from desktop users, while mobile users give only 23% of total online sales. Now, if we compare the average order value of hotels, it is about $417, while the average order value of travel sites is about $581.5.

Conversion Rate – For a Clearer Picture

Let’s have a look at the conversion rates from different devices. If we look at the ecommerce conversion rate in 2017 and 2018, we will observe a directly proportional relationship between conversion rate and screen size. The bigger the screen, the better the conversion rate will be for both micro and macro conversions

Have a look at the figures, and the picture will be clear. Desktop devices have about a 4% conversion rate for ecommerce sites. On tablet devices, it is about 3.75%, while the conversion rate for mobile phone users is only 1.84%. From these figures, we can say that the bigger the screen, the bigger the chance of a conversion.

With most websites, the situation is not satisfactory because these websites don’t have a good conversion rate. Hence, it is necessary to track the conversion properly and identify the channels that aren’t assisting in sales. Analytics tools like Finteza allow you to track different types of conversion goals based on the visited pages. This lets you optimize pages for better conversion rates. 

A Lesson for UI/UX Designers

From the facts we read above, we have a lesson for the mobile apps and web UI/UX designers. They need to design something which can give bigger buyers bigger details and comparison right on their mobile phone screens.

Designers must work on modern lines, and they should keep in mind these facts and figures while designing new websites specifically for mobile phones. Brainstorm on the ideas of increasing conversion rates for mobile phone devices. Design websites and apps for mobile screens that can fulfill the needs of the users.

Adding buttons and using glowing colors is not just enough; we will have to find out some tips to engage users and to enhance conversion rates from mobile phone traffic on ecommerce sites. Lots of designers and experts have worked on various ideas to increase user engagement and conversion rates

These ideas are not just final, and you need to be more creative to bring something extraordinary that may appeal and attract the user. We need to give the user what he demands, and from the above discussion, we got the idea that the user needs information, comparison and a sense of trust. Design for the user something which can give the user a symphony of these factors for better user experience and better conversion. ​

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