Mobile Devices Now Generate 25 Percent of All Digital Travel Transactions in the U.S.

These four charts, below, from ad tech company Criteo‘s latest quarterly “State of Mobile Commerce” report explain it all.

According to the latest report from Q1 this year, mobile commerce (including tablets) is growing like weeds, everywhere. Mobile is now 29% of e-commerce transactions in the U.S. and 34% globally. By the end of 2015, mobile share is forecast to reach 33% in the U.S. and 40% globally.

Travel is one of the early adopter sectors in mobile e-commerce, and it is the third largest sector in U.S., according to Criteo data. Mobile accounts for about 27 percent of all digital consumer travel transactions, as the chart below shows.

In all of mobile retail commerce, smartphones have become the bigger platform, and in the U.S. they are the majority now. And, as the report says, although the conversion rates on smartphones are lower than desktop or tablet, smartphones generate more transactions due to significantly higher traffic.

And of course, as smartphone screen-sizes get larger, such as with the iPhone 6 and Samsung Galaxy, consumers are finding smartphones a convenient way to complete purchases.

When it comes to the split between smartphone platforms, the difference between iPhone and Android phones isn’t as much as anecdotal as one would think, according to the data from Criteo, in the chart below. Travel brands, or really any early adopter brands that have focused in a big way on iOS need to rethink their mobile product strategy.

The chart below is very interesting, and shows that tablet spending is a lot higher in travel when it comes to buying/booking tickets, compared to smartphones, which may point to the complex multi-site, multi-app comparison nature of booking behavior, which works a lot better on larger tablet screens than they do on smartphone apps.

Based on the data, Criteo sees five major trends happening in mobile commerce world, all of which apply to travel as well:

• By year-end, mobile share of eCommerce transactions is forecast to reach 33% in the US, and 40% globally.
• Smartphones will continue to displace slower-growing tablets. Larger screen phones will be an added accelerant to this existing trend.
• The smartphone conversion funnel is different: Advertisers in Western markets will focus heavily on improving their mobile websites, leading to dramatic increases in product browsing. Purchase rates will also improve as mobile payments become more seamless.
• Apple and Android continue to battle it out, but both are winners vs. a shrinking desktop.
• Understanding cross-device behavior will be the biggest challenge and opportunity for marketers in 2015, as a majority of users visit their sites via multiple devices.

The full report is embedded below through Slideshare: