Increase in customers converting from browsers to buyers

Good news for online retailers: Improvements to mcommerce are leading to a rise in the number of people shifting from web browsing to web buying.

The Monetate Ecommerce Quarterly report for Q1 2014 highlights a number of intriguing ecommerce statistics for the early months of this year in both for the US and Europe; not least that conversion rates from browsing to buying online have increased by 11% based on year-on-year comparisons.

Revenue per session is also up by almost a half (47%), while the average order value on ecommerce sites has increased by a third (33%).

The statistics suggest that ecommerce sites are becoming more tuned to what customers want, and that website journeys are becoming easier, reducing the friction in the buying process. Social media also plays a part, with many customer decisions being swayed by social posts and trends:

“Research and evaluation that takes place before the customer reaches your site has traditionally been reserved for high value purchases. But as social and shopping channels increase, we’re seeing this threshold fade and our EQ data supports that,” says David Brussin, founder and CEO, Monetate.

“By the time customers reach your site, they’ve likely been exposed to something that peaked their interest and pushed them into ‘buy mode.’ As a result, it has become increasingly clear that creating highly relevant and personalised multi-channel experiences for your customers is now a requirement for strong growth.”

Social media is still in its infancy in terms of shopping, according to the research, however those who do shop through social are likely to spend more – Instagram order value increased 149% in Q1 2014. Retailers are clearly seeing the benefits in more visual social networks, with Pintrest data shpwing that 40 of the world’s leading online shopping platforms now use the site for sales.

The research also found that some parts of Europe are embracing mobile shopping far quicker than in the US, with tablet use doubling in the UK, and increasing five-fold in Germany. Revenue per session on Android tablets has gone up by 495% in the UK, with iPad revenue per session also up by 144%.   

Monotate’s data was based on a random sample of over 7 billion online shopping experiences, including key performance indicators such as average order value and conversion rate.