In the Numbers | August

According to the Tenba Group, mobile devices generate 80% of the retail ecommerce sales in China. This compares to the global average of 64%.

And as for the U.S., Insider Intelligence forecasts that m-commerce will reach $284 billion, or 45% of the total U.S. e-commerce market, by the end of 2020.The issue with mobile in the US is not traffic, but conversion. The conversion rate for desktop shoppers is more than double that of mobile users.

In its 2019 year-end report, Sale Cycle looked specifically at the global fashion industry, which has established itself as something of an outlier in m-commerce.

Fashion brand websites and online storefronts have more mobile traffic than any others (75%) and a greater proportion of sales (67%). Fashion retailers also convert a higher percentage of mobile traffic into sales (89.3%).

And while add to cart rates on mobile are not too far behind desktop, conversion rates tend to be a lot lower in many cases. This suggests that, while many mobile shoppers often reach the point of purchase, they are deterred during checkout.

The answer for many retailers is to simplify the checkout process as much as possible, such as removing barriers to purchase like registration, and making forms easier to complete on a touch screen.

Any shortcuts to checkout can also help, such as using autofill for forms, as well as alternative ecommerce payment options which can speed up the checkout.