2015 eCommerce Pulse in Review: 6 Promising Highlights
As the dust settles behind an impressive holiday shopping season for online retailers, below we have a quick look at some key analytics and takeaways.
- A total of 30.4% of online sales were placed on mobile (phones and tablets), up from 25.9% of orders in 2014. In fact, the share of transactions made on mobile phones climbed from 14% in 2014 up to nearly 20% in 2015 (19.9% to be exact). The share of orders placed on desktop computers dropped from 74.2% in 2014 to 69.% in 2015. You can no longer ignore mobile traffic and hope for the best. More and more users are shopping from their mobile devices and retailers need to ensure that their mobile experience is effective and converts.
- Search ruled holiday shopping in 2015, claiming a combined total of 39.2% of orders: organic search with 21.5% and paid search with 17.7%. This once again reaffirms that paid search remains a necessary evil, making it difficult to do e-commerce without it.
- With strong revenue increase (12.1%) came a solid jump in orders, up 10.9% with the average order value (AOV) up 1.1%. This indicates a less promotionally driven holiday season — a good sign for retailers.
- E-mail marketing was the leading channel behind search, driving an impressive 20% of online sales. Neck and neck with email was direct marketing, taking 19.4% of the holiday shopping pie. As we gear up in 2016 the biggest take away for us should be a continued emphasis on successful email marketing campaigns.
- Apple continued to rule the mobile shopping game with 76.9% of orders placed on iOS devices. Consumers using Android devices accounted for 22.7% of online transactions, which is up slightly from 2014 when that number was 20.7%. Leading us to the same conclusion once again that if you are going to spend resources building an app, start with iOS first.
- Social media (Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest, etc.) only drove 1.8% of sales, down slightly from 1.9% of sales in 2014. It is getting harder and harder to drive conversions via social platforms. However more and more retailers are using social for brand awareness and product launches.
