Mobile's Share of E-Commerce Spend Beats Record, Still Growing: Comscore

Digital commerce accounted for 31% of discretionary dollars spent by consumers in Q4, said Ryan Williams, Comscore’s head-client insights, on a Thursday State of Retail webinar. About 20% of Q4 dollars were spent via desktop, 11% on smartphones and tablets.

Mobile’s share of e-commerce dollars grew 2 points to 36%, a new high. Comscore hasn’t projected what the peak is for mobile’s share of online shopping, which has exceeded expectations and continues to grow. Ian Essling, senior director-survey insights, attributed mobile’s growing share to 5G, larger smartphone screens and improved shopping apps.

Q4 e-commerce spending grew 31% year on year to $281 billion, with $180.3 billion spent on a desktop, $101 billion via smartphones and tablets. In addition to larger screens leading to more shopping on phones, Essling cited consumer use patterns shifting from tablets, which used to handle most mobile e-commerce shopping, to multi-use laptops.

Consumer holiday spending is starting earlier in Q4, but it hasn’t shifted out of November yet, said Williams, calling 2021 an “anomaly” due to supply chain concerns. Despite widely publicized October promotions, consumers still largely waited until the traditional November-December period to do their holiday spending, he said. That could change -- "I don't know if retailers will start pushing Black Friday deals in September" -- but online shoppers apportioned their Q4 spending, including 38% in November and 34% in December, similarly to 2020, he said.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday trends are changing, Williams said. Cyber Monday has lost its prominence as a key sales day, said Williams. Though the term Black Friday is still popular, “it’s no longer just about the day anymore.” Essling said consumers are peppered with so many online promotions earlier in the season that they don’t want to wait until Cyber Monday for deals. Promos are now about the “lead-up week to Black Friday” and the “prequel to Black Friday,” a transition he expects to continue.

Because of earlier promotions, Williams added, if retailers don’t get to consumers earlier, “you might miss out” on consumers’ budgets. “There’s a limit to how much people are going to spend in Q4,” he said. If retailers wait until actual Black Friday, “you might have missed out on half the dollars available to you.”

A February Comscore survey showed four of 10 holiday shoppers experienced longer shipping times, 36% experienced out-of-stocks, 32% saw higher prices, 24% reported fewer discounts, 24% said retailers informed them gifts would arrive after Christmas, and 9% said lost packages never arrived. As a result, 60% of consumers modified shopping plans and parted with previous brand loyalty, said Williams. Some 22% went to a different e-commerce site, 18% canceled orders, 14% ordered a different brand and 13% bought a gift card instead, the survey showed. “If you aren’t able to get items to people in an expected period of time, they’re going to go find that item somewhere else vs. just wait for it anymore,” Williams said, a trend he expects to continue.

Shipping remains an important concern for consumers, said the February survey. Over a third of shoppers who abandoned online shopping carts in the previous month did so due to unexpected shipping costs, Essling said. Overall, 65% of consumers put items in their carts and then didn’t check out during the month. Other reasons for cart abandonment: a coupon didn’t apply (26%), final fees were too high (25%), out-of-stock inventory (20%) and shipping time was too long (19%).

Amazon led the top 10 desktop domains in Q4, followed by Apple, Walmart and eBay. Target slipped a spot to sixth, and Best Buy was eighth, Comscore said. Mobile buyers shopped the most at Amazon, Walmart and Target, with Samsung.com coming in fourth. Apple.com, was shown at seventh for mobile shoppers, coming in one spot ahead of Bestbuy.com.