Mobify, a digital experience platform which powers mobile shopping interactions through apps and web pages, has released an analysis of 2018’s mobile Cyber week turnout.  According to the report, this season’s eCommerce holiday shopping continued to trend upwards, with mobile transactions and traffic increasing, not only over the predicted Black Friday and Cyber Monday but the entire week.

Consumers have shown a new preference to shopping on mobile devices, with mobile transactions and traffic both rising 22 per cent over last year, and mobile revenue share increasing by 28 per cent. As mobile shopping becomes more convenient and secure, transactions and traffic on desktop and tablet devices are in a consistently state of decline. With lower visits to product detail pages (PDPs) on Black Friday, Mobify suggests shoppers already knew what they wanted, prior to the beginning of their online session.

 “Last year, we saw mobile revenue jump, particularly for retail leaders, while two years ago we were looking at holiday mobile shoppers turning to their phones primarily on weekends,” said Mobify CEO, Igor Faletski. “Now we have a prolonged digital holiday shopping week dominated by mobile with consumers who are savvy, engaged and ready to be sold to. This puts a lot of pressure on retailers to keep up with expectations across mobile, as well as across all screens and channels.”

The average mobile session duration continued to increase from the days leading into Black Friday through the rest of Cyber week, hitting peak engagement on “Cyber Tuesday”, with sessions lasting 18 seconds longer than the average November Tuesday. Although searched-to-purchased conversation rates dropped, Mobify warns this is a “misleading metric”. Mobile traffic and transactions did increase, but with more site visits than cart purchases, conversation rates were lowered.

Sessions-with-search rates, or searches within a website, hit a peak for November on the Sunday to Wednesday before Black Friday, suggesting consumers were looking for deals prior to the weekend. This may have led to cart landing pages spiking on “Cyber” Tuesday, as consumers were continuously adding items to their carts, but postponed completing the purchase until after the weekend.

“Shoppers are clearly interested in extending holiday shopping via mobile,” said Faletski, “Promotions like flash sales throughout the week and ensuring that products are in stock after the holiday rush are essential.  Retailers have to be ready to deliver not just a good, short-term mobile commerce experience, but a great one that is sustainable and at the center of their customers’ purchasing preferences.”