Smartphones Find Favour, But Mobile Experiences Often Fail To Impress
Europeans are using their smartphones for more and more activities, according to the latest “Best of the Best” report, but many are frustrated by poor optimisation.
For Europeans, the smartphone has become the device of choice for many activities, and delivering great mobile experiences is driving success for Europe’s most successful businesses, according to the latest “Best of the Best” report from Adobe Digital Insights (ADI), released today (Adobe is CMO.com’s parent company).
Smartphone Traffic
The smartphone’s share of website visits has increased year-on-year across the whole of Europe, with the highest growth being experienced by the top 20% of German businesses, who saw a 51% increase in traffic from mobile devices.
Meanwhile, in the U.K, the top 20% of performers are getting half of their browser visits from smartphones, compared to just under 38% for businesses which haven’t invested heavily in optimising their mobile customer experience.
Across the board, the top 20% of performers in each business sector outperformed their peers when it came to smartphone visits, with the gap widening for the top brands in retail, financial services, and technology sectors, compared to their competitors.
The smartphone is becoming the device of choice for many activities; especially when it comes to reading articles, checking social media, listening to music, or playing games. We are now as likely to watch online videos or look at photos on our phones as on our desktop computers. We are also more comfortable shopping via our phones than ever before, with a 22% increase since last year’s “Best of the Best” report.
Desktop Visits On The Decline
Desktop computers’ share of site visits has continued to decline across the continent over the last 12 months, with Germany seeing the biggest drop (13% year-on-year), followed closely by the U.K. and the Nordics (both 12%).
Desktop’s share of browser visits is also down across all industries (15%), with the gap widening between the top 20% in the media and entertainment, financial services, technology, and telecommunications sectors and their competition.
Shorter Site Visits
Despite desktop’s drop in share of visits across Europe, overall traffic (from both smartphone and desktop) continued to rise in the U.K. and the Nordics. These two regions were also the only ones to buck the overall trend for time spent on sites and site stickiness to fall over the last 12 months. Time spent on sites was also down across all industries except financial services and telecoms. These two sectors, along with media & entertainment, were also the only ones not to see a drop in site stickiness.
The factors that are driving shorter site visits on mobile revolve around the overall mobile experience, with poor design layout and screen size being the two main reasons. Brands also need to improve mobile search, as well as reflecting the needs of users when they are on the go and want to get tasks done quickly and easily.
Device Switching
Half of European consumers frequently switch devices while carrying out common tasks such as checking email, using social media, carrying out research, or shopping, especially as the average European owns, on average, 6.1 connected devices!
Providing consumers with the ability to pick up where they left off as they move from one device to another is key to delivering a seamless customer experience, especially for 18-24 year-olds, who are even more likely to flit from one device to another. Having to log in again to access content on different devices, and having to enter data on a smaller mobile screen, are common complaints among most consumers.
Mobile Frustration
Although the smartphone is becoming the device of choice for many European consumers, a large percentage of them are unsatisfied with the mobile experience. Common consumer complaints include content loading too slowly, poor site design, and hard-to-navigate page layouts. And all this is compounded by trying to get often-simple tasks done on a small screen. These factors can have an impact not only on conversion rates but also customer satisfaction, especially among younger smartphone users who get even more frustrated than their older peers when it comes to getting a great mobile experience.
However, when brands get it right, mobile can deliver sales. When it comes to buying by phone rather than on your desktop, the U.K. and the Nordics experience the highest level of conversions, although, in general, these still lag behind those from desktops. The top 20% of brands within the retail and travel sectors are experiencing higher conversion rates from both mobiles and desktops, and the gap is widening in comparison to their competitors when it comes to making a sale.
Click here to view a larger version of this report on Slideshare.