Looking at retailers’ data across a number of sectors it has been possible to see the impact of a site that has been fully optimised for mobile on conversion rates.

With a seamless process in place, it is easier for the mobile visitor to interact with the site; searching for and viewing products is made more intuitive and it is simple for the visitor to add products to their basket and ultimately check out to complete the transaction.

A site that has not been optimised for mobile makes the customer journey a fiddly and frustrating process and almost always results in the visitor not completing a transaction.

They could return through a desktop to make the transaction but another possible scenario could be that they purchase from a competitor that does have a mobile optimised site in place.

By looking at retailers that operate within the same sector we’re able to see clear improvements in conversion rate when a mobile optimised site is launched.

Gifts

Advertisers A and B both operate within the gift space. They have similar product offerings and both receive in excess of 10% of their traffic through the affiliate channel from mobile handsets.

Advertiser A has a fully optimised mobile experience while Advertiser B directs visitors through a mobile device to the standard desktop version of the site. As a result, Advertiser A experiences a much better conversion rate through mobile handsets – converting at 5.3%. As the customer journey through Advertiser B is not optimised for mobile, there is a higher drop off rate and conversions have suffered. Advertiser B by contrast only converts 1.3% of its mobile traffic.

Whilst there may be other factors in play (price competitiveness, delivery options etc.) there is a clear correlation between optimised and non-optimised for mobile in this particular sector.

Footwear

We see a similar situation when comparing two of our advertisers within the retail sector that specialise in footwear. Again, the advertisers are very similar in their offering and receive a high proportion of their visitors through mobile handsets.

Advertiser C has a mobile optimised site in place whereas advertiser D again directs to the standard desktop version of the site.

With the ability to seamlessly browse products, add them to your basket and complete the transaction without any need for resizing the screen, Advertiser C has a conversion rate through mobile handsets of 3.2% whereas Advertiser D only converts at barely a third of the rate.

Travel

Finally we are able to look at two advertisers within the travel sector. They do not receive as high a proportion of traffic through mobile handsets as we have seen for the retailers that we have looked at, but around 5% of each of their traffic is originating from a mobile handset.

Again we can see the impact of an optimised user journey. Advertiser E has a mobile site in place and converts through mobile handsets at an impressive 5.8%.

Advertiser F does not have a site that is optimised for mobile and it is evident that travel has one of the lowest conversion rates through mobile handsets where an optimised site is not available – the conversion rate through mobile handsets through Advertiser F is only 0.8%.

In other words, for every 10,000 clicks, Advertiser E will record 500 more sales than Advertiser F. When this is multiplied by an average booking amount the numbers soon start to stack up.

As well as each of the advertisers with a mobile optimised site demonstrating superior conversion rates, we have also seen the average order values (AOV)increase when compared to transacting through a desktop version of the site.

Looking at an example of a large online retailer with a high street presence, AOV through the mobile optimised version of the site was 8.25% higher than when the visitor opted to view the desktop site through a mobile device.

If we break this down by the actual handset that was used to purchase, the iPhone demonstrated the most significant increase with a 22.7% higher AOV.

Similarly, when looking at the footwear advertiser mentioned above, the AOV when transacting through a mobile optimised version of the site was higher. This even outstripped the AOV that was seen when purchasing on a desktop with AOV 12% higher when purchasing through a mobile handset.

In summary

The impact of a mobile optimised user experience is clearly evident across a number of different sectors. Consumers that transact through a mobile optimised version of the site are not only more likely to convert, but when they do they are likely to spend more.

With an increasing number of consumers turning to their mobile handsets to access the internet and to actually purchase on these devices, advertisers need to fully embrace mobile commerce. It is also vital that affiliate tracking is added to any mobile optimised site.

Without this, sales through mobile devices will not track and advertisers will miss out on a number of opportunities that are available through the performance channel.