2014 Cyber Monday Digital Retail Learnings
Desktops dominate all devices for 2014 Cyber Monday traffic and conversions
When it comes to Cyber Monday results, the young, new, sexy smart phones and tablets tend to get most of the attention, while the tried and true desktop computer still dominates the internet world. According to IBM market results, desktops accounted for 58.6% of all online traffic and 78% of all online sales. PC's yield the highest results and marketers shouldn't lose focus on this.
Don't get me wrong, mobile devices are essential to achieving success during both Cyber Monday and Black Friday. Mobile is heavily relied upon to drive awareness and purchase consideration. Smart marketers are reaching consumers through email marketing, paid search, blogs, and targeted programmatic ads to plant the seed, showcase various Cyber Monday offers, and own the ZMOT. The consumer typically researches via a mobile device, but may end up converting on the PC. Using analytic tools, marketers can measure how each marketing touch point and/or device plays a role in the purchase funnel. Attributions can be given to mobile devices even if the final conversion touch point occurs on the desktop computer.
Source: Google
Consider the role of each device to own the consumer consideration process
Marketers should consider the role of each mobile device and how they drive consumers through the consideration process and into the purchase funnel. Media, messaging, and budgets should therefore be allocated differently for both smart phones, tablets and desktop computers. Even day-parting of ads should be utilized knowing that consumers spend more 'lag' time in the evening hours across tablets compared to the smart phone counterparts. Doesn't it make sense to sell a consumer on the benefits of a product through a video between 6pm-11pm when the audience has time to consume the content?
Even sales results by mobile device differ. While smart phones drove 28.5% of all Cyber Monday online traffic, tablets drove a higher percentage of online sales at 12.9%, compared to smart phones at 9.1%. Additionally, tablets achieved a higher average order sale at $121.49, while smart phones averaged $99.61. These results aren't surprising as a tablet website experience is very similar to that conducted on a desktop computer. Even if a website is not responsive or mobile optimized (they should be), a consumer can more easily navigate and purchase via a tablet device. The takeaway here is that regardless of having a mobile optimized website, you can still compete in the mobile space. Allocate some money towards promoting your website offers to tablet users as opposed to smart phone devices. Your customers will enjoy a better shopping experience and your website is likely to receive a better ROI.
In conclusion, while smart phones and tablets receive most of the attention during Cyber Monday, desktop computers are still king of the conversion world. A smart marketer knows and understands the role that a smart phone, tablet and desktop computer plays in the purchase funnel and ensures that they advertise to and measure results for each device accordingly.