How can E-Retailers Meet the Cross-Device Challenge?

With the rapid increase in the number of screens available, internet users are developing new purchasing habits. While e-commerce is gaining momentum on mobile devices, tracking users’ browsing paths across all devices as in cross-device is a major challenge for both advertisers and publishers.

Waking up to read the latest news on a smartphone, relaxing on a computer at work over lunch, spending the evening looking at social networks on a tablet… Juggling devices has become a habit! With an average of 6.4 screens per household¹, French access to the internet is increasingly mobile.

E-commerce players have taken heed of these new browsing trends: they?re constantly optimising their digital platforms, offering responsive sites and dedicated applications and paying particular attention to the cross-device user experience to increase their conversion rate.

A Rapid Democratisation of M-Commerce

Another notable and lasting phenomenon: consumers are increasingly keen to make purchases via their smartphones. As such, in the last six months of 2016, 28% of e-commerce transactions carried out in France were carried out on mobile. A year-on-year increase, but well below the figures in the United Kingdom or Japan where more than one of every two sales is carried out on a mobile or a tablet.

The value of purchases made on mobile in France is growing! At the end of 2016, for every ?100 spent using a desktop, ?90 was spent using a smartphone. An increase of more than ?2 over the course of the year. Fashion, luxury and sports products are the most popular with French online customers.²

As you might imagine, this new method of purchase has also become more popular across the Atlantic. As such, Black Friday 2016 saw mobile sales in the US surpass the $1 billion mark³, representing nearly one in three online transactions. A year earlier, tablet and mobile traffic surpassed computer traffic for the first time.⁴

Cross-Device at The Heart of the E-Commerce Process

With the increasing popularity of m-commerce, cross-device purchases are multiplying. As a result, it?s not uncommon to see an internet user opening an email in the morning on his/her smartphone on the way to work, comparing prices in the evening on his/her tablet at home and completing his/her purchase the next day on a work PC.

Purchases made on a computer tend to occur during the day, between 6am and 8pm. Those made on mobile peak overnight between midnight and 8am, while transactions on a tablet tend to occur either in the morning or in the evening.

In 2016, 45% of e-commerce transactions involved two or more devices and an estimated 40% of purchases via a computer were made after an initial mobile visit.⁴ As a result, the linear advertising model, which has dominated until now, has lost legitimacy because internet users are making fewer purchases from a single screen.

Offer Optimum Tracking on all Devices

Tracking and understanding the fragmented browsing paths of users on all devices has become a major issue for both publishers and advertisers. The former want to be sure that they?ll be paid for all the sales made on their site or application, while the latter need to be able to send their consumers the right message at the right time and on the right device.

Kwanko offers cross-device tracking to better understand the role of each device in the purchasing process to ensure optimum monitoring of internet users throughout their digital day. By closely studying the browsing and consumer habits as part of its campaigns, Kwanko is able to collect a significant amount of data which is essential both to optimise its advertisers? communication strategy and to adapt their message according to users’ behaviour.

Another key point: it?s now possible to create a single web and mobile campaign with customised media, adapted to each device. Lastly, a better understanding of the conversion funnel makes it possible to identify and reward the best performing publishers. There?s plenty to do!

Sources:

1.  http://www.lsa-conso.fr/plus-de-6-ecrans-en-moyenne-dans-les-foyers-francais-etude,226680
2.  https://viuz.com/2017/02/28/etude-criteo-letat-du-commerce-cross-device-en-france-8-tendances-majeures/
3.  http://news.adobe.com/press-release/marketing-cloud/media-alert-adobe-data-shows-black-friday-breaks-online-sales-record-3
4.  https://appinstitute.com/black-friday-2016-mobile-vs-desktop-sales/