‘Tis the season that many retailers look to tactics and strategies to programmatically maximize their e-commerce conversion, and customer value pre-peak. These new innovations are critical for success, but always include a bit of risk. Are there any “tried-and-true” approaches we can confidently implement pre-peak with 100% certainty?
We’re happy to advise you on how best to implement key tools such as those RichRelevance offers and believe that this—paired with “Hill Climbing” will benefit you most. Hill Climbing maximizes your profits by optimizing assets you already have. We encourage you to “Hill Climb” hard for the next few weeks to leverage your existing strengths, insights, and capabilities.
Model yourself after the most successful Hill Climbing organizations (Amazon, eBay, Google) and listen to data, test ideas rigorously, and optimize constantly. Two key tenets of Hill Climbing are Metrics and Meritocracy—make consistent measurement of change easy, and combine this with agile change management. Combining these two engenders a culture motivated by positive results and empowered to make them happen one step at a time.
Study reveals that share of mobile sales on iOS devices dropped 12% in year-over-year comparisons, giving way to the Android platform.
Reading, UK – 17 January 2013 – Once again, mobile commerce has showed itself to play a critical role in the online retail experience, particularly during peak shopping periods. In a new Shopping Insights™ study released today (infographic available here), RichRelevance, the leading provider of personalisation for online retailers, reported that mobile was a predominant driver of online shopping in December, with more than one in four shopping sessions taking place on a mobile device. The report also found that Apple iOS devices accounted for 85% of mobile purchases in December 2012—a measurable decline when compared to the same period in 2011.
The second UK Boxing Day Shopping Study from RichRelevance analysed over 322 million online visits to many of the UK’s largest retail websites, including John Lewis and Marks & Spencer. Shopping sessions took place on mobile or desktop computers during the month of December 2012. Key findings from the report follow:
Shopping by Device (Boxing Day 2012 and December 2012)
- Mobile devices accounted for one in four shoppers on Boxing Day 2012: 25% of all shoppers were on some kind of mobile platform compared with 75% on desktops and non-mobile computers. Apple devices dominated mobile shopping, with 56% shopping on iPad and 18% on iPhone.
- The iOS platform saw a measurable decline in share of mobile shopping sales year-over-year: In December 2011, 97% of sales originated from iOS devices, compared with 85% in December 2012, representing a 12% decline.
Share of Mobile Shopping (December 2012)
- Mobile usage grew steadily from the beginning of the month through Christmas and Boxing Day, when it peaked. On 1 December, about 19% of shoppers were on a mobile platform. By 25 December, the share had climbed to 28%.
Conversion & AOV (25 – 31 December)
- Screen size matters! Desktops produced the highest conversion at 3.7%, followed by iPads at 2.5%, and mobile phones at around 1%. Apple devices drove higher AOV than non-Apple devices—£106.48 for iPhone and £98.25 for iPad.
Session Length (25 – 31 December)
- Shoppers have the longest shopping sessions on desktop computers, and the shortest sessions on mobile phones. Tablets strike a happy medium for the on-the-go shopper.
“Throughout 2013, commerce on mobile devices will become an even greater priority for retailers, as customers research products, compare prices and shop across channels, predominantly on their smart phones. Retailers must optimise their websites for the mobile shopper—while paying special attention to the varying influence of the platforms that shoppers use in their path to purchase —or risk losing revenue and the bigger opportunity to build brand loyalty,” said Darren Hitchcock, vice president, UK and European region, RichRelevance.
Methodology: This RichRelevance 2012 Boxing Day Shopping Insights™ study is based on an analysis of 322 million shopping sessions which took place in December 2012 across UK-based online retail sites inclusive of mass merchants as well as small and specialty retailers.
About RichRelevance
RichRelevance delivers over 850 million product recommendations daily, powering the personalized shopping experiences for consumers shopping the world’s largest and most innovative retail brands like Walmart, Sears, Target, Marks & Spencer and John Lewis. Founded and led by the e-commerce expert who helped pioneer personalization at Amazon.com, RichRelevance helps retailers increase sales and customer engagement by recommending the most relevant products to consumers regardless of the channel they are shopping. RichRelevance has delivered more than $5.5 billion in attributable sales for its retail clients to date, and is accelerating these results with the introduction of a new form of digital advertising called Shopping Media which allows brands to engage consumers where it matters most—in the digital aisles on the largest retail sites in world. RichRelevance is headquartered in San Francisco, with offices in New York, Seattle, Boston and London. For more information, please visit www.richrelevance.co.uk.
It all started with a cheesy holiday party invitation featuring cartoon-style ice skaters carving the words, “Cool As Ice” on a pristine San Francisco winter day (meteorologically impossible to freeze anything outdoor in SF, let alone an entire body of water). Just your standard holiday get-together with co-workers, right? Wrong. The only rumor floating was that there would be a “special guest…”
If you were one of the few who knew the 1991 movie reference, you could probably decipher the code. But with the ambiguity behind the reference, “Cool As Ice” quickly became an internal scavenger hunt for who the “special guest” would be. Despite the blatant clues, no one even thought to consider the 90’s rap superstar…
Thanks Giving.
I love today: The day before Thanksgiving.
Today we get the opportunity to think of everything for which to be thankful, and we have good reason to. In the retail world, we’ve just straight-up busted our tails the past months all in preparation for this Friday—ensuring everything is perfectly tuned, dialed and scaled to handle the consumer uproar which will be this weekend and the ensuing 15-20 days of craziness. Today is almost a combination of a final sprint with a huge breath out at the end of the day. “Whew—thank goodness for our amazing IT team. Let’s let ‘er roll!”
[ As an aside, top search terms for this season so far? —Tablets Rule! #1 may be TVs, but both #2 and #3 are for tablets: ipad, and tablet]
I know the absolute last thing you want to be thinking about right now is the Christmas holiday, but this year RichRelevance is giving you your gift early. Today we released our “12 months of Christmas” white paper—chock full of best practices for retailers to help jump start their Holiday 2012 season planning.
For every month, we offer insights and best practices on ways to maximize your efforts in a variety of fields, including:
- Cross-Channel Marketing
- Mobile
- Search
- Social Media
- Email Marketing
You’re invited to get ahead of the curve, and start utilizing all of the opportunities you have at your fingertips right now to make your next holiday shopping season your best ever!
Happy (early) Holidays!
‘Tis the season! While most of us will be keeping pace with the busiest time of the year, I wanted to take a moment to remind us all why it is we all work so hard to give our customers the best possible shopping experience. For that reason, members of the {rr} team have stepped forward to share their holiday stories — Favorite Holiday Memories — that make up the fabric of what the holiday season really means.
We invite you to take a moment to peruse these stories and re-acquaint yourself with the meaning of sharing, giving and relishing in all we for which we have to be thankful. We would even love to hear your stories, so if you want to join us in the holiday spirit please email your memories to us.
