Smartphones Drive Online Sales

Online report finds smartphones driving online sales, traffic for first time.

Smartphones, not tablets, are driving online sales and traffic for retailers, according to new research from Shop.com, Forrester Research and Bizrate Insights.

The State of Retailing Online Report found that, of retailers surveyed, sales on smartphones accounted for 17 percent of total online sales, edging ahead of the 14 percent produced by tablets. In fact, sales from smartphones grew 53 percent over the past year, while sales from tablet devices grew 32 percent.

This growth comes despite modest investment on the part of retailers. Thirty percent of retailers surveyed say they invested less than $10,000 on smartphone platforms and 17 percent kept budgets between $10,000 and $50,000.

“Retailers are building their mobile platforms with strong customer engagement strategies in mind, allowing their shoppers to easily click and buy or research in-store availability,” says Vicki Cantrell, executive director, Shop.org. “For today’s consumer, this is all just a part of modern-day shopping; though for retailers, it’s a constant balance of where and how much to invest into the mobile experience and infrastructure.”

More and more retailers will be focusing on this arena going forward. One-third of retailers surveyed plan to grow their smartphone investments more than 20 percent over the next year and 34 percent plan to grow their investments between 1 and 20 percent.