Shopping ads more effective on desktop than mobile devices

Monday, July 10, 2017 - 10:28 by Graham Miller

Although most people now browse the web from a smartphone more regularly than via a laptop or desktop computer, a new report has shown that it can still be harder for retailers to engage with mobile users when they click through from online ads.

The survey, commissioned by Foundit, revealed that more than four in five people who arrive on an e-commerce site after clicking on an ad tend to have the briefest of visits, usually viewing fewer than three pages before calling it quits, according to Internet Retailing.

Report spokesperson, Warren Cowan, said that many sites were making mistakes when building landing pages to appeal to potential customers. In particular, he argued that navigation was problematic on mobile devices, meaning that people who want to carry out shopping online are less likely to do so if the interface is not intuitive.

Analysts studied tens of millions of e-commerce sprees as part of the study, with a distinct difference being found between mobile and desktop engagement.

Thirty eight per cent of people who are shopping online on a traditional PC will visit more than one page after clicking on a search ad. Meanwhile for mobile users, this drops to just 27 per cent, creating a significant gap in engagement.

Cowan said that this is not something which retailers can afford to ignore, because mobile is quickly becoming the number one platform for safe shopping online and so failing to cater to this audience will lead to loss of revenue.

The solution is to make sure that the transition from checking out a page dedicated to a single product to viewing broader categories and site sections is as seamless as possible. Avoiding confusion and simplifying the interface will help sites win over mobile users.