Report: A/NZ consumers moving to mobile, but still converting on desktop

New Adobe Digital Insights report on desktop versus smartphone website browser traffic finds A/NZ leading globally for smartphone browser growth, plus stickiness and return website visits

Australia and New Zealand consumers increasingly look at websites via their smartphones but still significantly prefer completing a purchase via the desktop.

That’s one of the key insights reported in the latest Adobe Digital Insights Best of the Best Report, which analysed desktop versus mobile usage, engagement and conversion trends during 2016.

According to the report, smartphone traffic to websites (excluding mobile apps) continues to rise across all countries globally as well as all industries. Australia and New Zealand are among countries leading this shift, with 37.7 per cent of all browser traffic coming through smartphones (the highest was Japan at 44.1 per cent). A/NZ also experienced the highest growth year-on-year (44 per cent) after India, putting it well ahead of the US (32 per cent) and the regional average (29 per cent).

In addition, A/NZ saw higher smartphone traffic in retail and finance sectors when compared to the US. Adobe Digital Insights senior manager, Becky Tasker, told CMO the trend was unique to this geography and suggested it reflected the differentiated mobile strategy upheld by finance and retail companies operating in A/NZ.

Across the region, smartphone traffic was highest in the telecommunications industry (41.4 per cent), followed by automotive (45.5 per cent) and retail (44.5 per cent).  

Adobe’s report is based on aggregated anonymised data from about 100 billion visits to 3000 websites across Asia-Pacific during 2016, gathered via Adobe marketing technology. As part of the research, the vendor compared average results for each category with those of the top 20 per cent of organisations in terms of performance.

Adobe’s data also showed conversion rates and frequency of website engagement to be increasing across both desktops and smartphones globally. Total conversion in A/NZ for desktop, for example, was 2.9 per cent, up 14.3 per cent year-on-year, while smartphone conversion sat at 0.8 per cent, up 20.8 per cent year-on-year.

These figures were significantly higher across organisations in the top 20 percentile of performance in A/NZ, indicating top performers are breaking away from the pack. Desktop conversion for example was double at 5.8 per cent, while smartphone conversion was 1.4 per cent.

For Tasker, the smartphone conversion numbers are a worry nonetheless, and she suggested brands still have a long way to go in getting consumers comfortable with converting via a mobile device.

“Smartphone conversion rates are currently much lower than desktop. But as people shift to using phones to engage, brands will run into issues with them converting if the experience is not built well enough to encourage that on a mobile device,” she commented.

“It’s positive we’ve seen year-on-year increases, and A/NZ has higher growth rates than any other country. But in the future, brands need to bring smartphone conversion up as well as enhance cross-device experiences.”

Tasker noted a 2016 Adobe report based on a survey of 1000 consumers found loading times, screen size and navigation hindering conversions via a mobile device.

Another area Adobe’s report focused on was frequency and time spent engaging with websites.  A/NZ saw the highest visit rates in Asia-Pacific across both desktop (1.77 visits per month on average, or 2.37 for the top 20) and smartphones (1.61 visits per month on average, or 2.16 for the top 20), and also reported a 2.5 per cent overall increase in smartphone visit rates year-on-year.

A/NZ had the highest rate of consumers returning to websites, which Tasker said was a good sign that local brands are giving consumers a compelling reason to come back. The overall report suggested visitor rates were falling in other regions by 5.7 per cent on average.

Stickiness was also down globally, with the exception of A/NZ, which saw a modest 1 per cent year-on-year increase in time spent on websites to 6.28 minutes.  This was significantly higher in the top 20 per cent of organisations in A/NZ at 9.01 minutes.

Tasker described the drop in stickiness as a warning sign, suggesting consumers are being more selective about content and which sites they decide to engage with.

For Tasker, the report also illustrated how the ‘best and the best’ websites have a clear advantage over the competition.

“With the increasing complexity of the customer journey, a commitment to digital excellence helps marketers create satisfied customers, who in turn generate a significant increase in revenue,” she added.  

Follow CMO on Twitter: @CMOAustralia, take part in the CMO conversation on LinkedIn: CMO ANZ, join us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CMOAustralia, or check us out on Google+:google.com/+CmoAu      

Join the newsletter!

Or

Sign up to gain exclusive access to email subscriptions, event invitations, competitions, giveaways, and much more.

Membership is free, and your security and privacy remain protected. View our privacy policy before signing up.

Error: Please check your email address.
Show Comments

Latest Videos

More Videos

More Brand Posts

What are Chris Riddell's qualifications to talk about technology? What are the awards that Chris Riddell has won? I cannot seem to find ...

Tareq

Digital disruption isn’t disruption anymore: Why it’s time to refocus your business

Read more

Enterprisetalk

Mark

CMO's top 10 martech stories for the week - 9 June

Read more

Great e-commerce article!

Vadim Frost

CMO’s State of CX Leadership 2022 report finds the CX striving to align to business outcomes

Read more

Are you searching something related to Lottery and Lottery App then Agnito Technologies can be a help for you Agnito comes out as a true ...

jackson13

The Lottery Office CEO details journey into next-gen cross-channel campaign orchestration

Read more

Thorough testing and quality assurance are required for a bug-free Lottery Platform. I'm looking forward to dependability.

Ella Hall

The Lottery Office CEO details journey into next-gen cross-channel campaign orchestration

Read more

Blog Posts

Marketing prowess versus the enigma of the metaverse

Flash back to the classic film, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Television-obsessed Mike insists on becoming the first person to be ‘sent by Wonkavision’, dematerialising on one end, pixel by pixel, and materialising in another space. His cinematic dreams are realised thanks to rash decisions as he is shrunken down to fit the digital universe, followed by a trip to the taffy puller to return to normal size.

Liz Miller

VP, Constellation Research

Why Excellent Leadership Begins with Vertical Growth

Why is it there is no shortage of leadership development materials, yet outstanding leadership is so rare? Despite having access to so many leadership principles, tools, systems and processes, why is it so hard to develop and improve as a leader?

Michael Bunting

Author, leadership expert

More than money talks in sports sponsorship

As a nation united by sport, brands are beginning to learn money alone won’t talk without aligned values and action. If recent events with major leagues and their players have shown us anything, it’s the next generation of athletes are standing by what they believe in – and they won’t let their values be superseded by money.

Simone Waugh

Managing Director, Publicis Queensland

Sign in