New Report Says Biggest Retailers Are Failing To Maximize Mobile Revenue

Traffic/Revenue: Conversion Disconnect

In its 2016 Digital Insights Mobile Retail report, Adobe noted that smartphone traffic to retail sites rose 33 percent year-over-year despite overall traffic remaining flat, given the 6 percent drop in desktop traffic and 10 percent drop in tablet traffic.

Overall online sales revenue rose only 10 percent, as a 65 percent increase in smartphone revenue was offset to some extent by a 2 percent drop each in desktop and tablet revenues. However, desktop conversions are higher, 2.8 times than smartphones and tablet conversions are 2 times higher.

Why Conversion Eludes Large Retailers

Adobe believes the opportunity is in better converting the base and offsetting declines in desktop through highly engaging mobile retail experiences. Some of the experiences consumers look for are as follows:

• Quality.
• Personalization from login through checkout.

If retailers stay apathetic about these, Adobe feels they stand to miss out on a critical growth driver. Quantifying the revenue loss if status quo continues in terms of traffic, revenue and conversion, Adobe estimates that 11 percent of potential revenue could be lost over the next 14 months.

At Last Check ...

• Best Buy Co Inc BBY was down 2.06 percent at $38.40.
• Macy's Inc M was losing 1.39 percent to $35.45.
• Target Corporation TGT was slipping 0.89 percent at $67.98.
• Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. WMT was up 0.20 percent at $69.74.