I’m happy to be able to say that I am done with all my holiday shopping (or at least I think I am)! This year I accomplished about 75% of my shopping online with about 10% of my online shopping taking place on my smartphone. Obviously I am just one person, but data this year is telling the same story for other shoppers. In the Skai 2013 Global Online Retail Seasonal Shopping Report: Early Edition, we analyzed a cross-section of our global clients to uncover key trends thus far in the shopping season and saw parallel trends.
Similar to how I favored staying in my nice warm apartment and shopping from the convenience of my sofa, thus far in the 2013 shopping season, Skai saw US paid search spend increase nearly 50% and revenue from paid search increase 31% compared to 2012. Apparently I wasn’t alone in choosing to avoid the stores on Black Friday!
This year is the first year I can remember making a purchase from my smartphone while out shopping. I was in a store looking at a rather large and bulky toy for my out of state niece and decided to do a price check online. The toy ended up being cheaper online so I bought it directly from my smartphone and shipped it to my brother’s house. My smartphone ended up saving me money and a trip to the post office.
Given my win-win experience, I knew that I couldn’t be alone and that more shoppers must be making mobile purchases. The Skai Early Edition Report found that ad spend on mobile devices (tablets and phones) increased 67% YoY and the share of revenue for phones specifically grew 129% in 2013.
Additionally, more than 1 out of every 3 global paid search clicks originated from a mobile device as of Cyber Monday. This increase could be due in part to Google’s launch of enhanced campaigns that further integrated mobile targeting into digital strategy, but I think it is also a testament to how, as consumers, we are further incorporating smartphones into our lives.
No matter what the reason, it is clear that if mobile is not a part of your digital marketing strategy, you are missing out on a large piece of the revenue pie. Skai offers campaign management, optimization and reporting solutions for mobile that help capture more of the growing mobile traffic and its potential. We have invested heavily in our market leading bid policies so that our clients have appropriate mobile bid adjustments and do not miss out on this growing revenue source.
For more trends seen in this early shopping season please make sure to download the Skai 2013 Global Online Retail Seasonal Shopping Report: Early Edition. These insights are valuable all year around and can come in very helpful when planning for the 2014 holiday season (I know, too soon!).
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