Smartphone Users Are Spending Less Time but More Money Online Shopping

Despite the challenges retailers face in attracting today’s smartphone generation, there remains hope: Mobile users are spending more money during website visits, even though they’re putting in less time online.

According to a new Adobe Digital Insights report titled “A Mobile-First World,” smartphones are the only category of devices seeing growth in online visits the U.S., logging an 89 percent uptick in visits since January 2015 when the study was commenced. (For comparison, tablet and desktop saw a decline in visits — a respective 30 percent and 17 percent.)

Still, these visits are getting shorter — shrinking by almost 10 percent in the last three years, both in terms of pages visited in a session and overall session duration.

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“Marketers have to pay even closer attention to optimize the smartphone browsing experience since efficiency is becoming key,” the report said. “Consumers are becoming accustomed to an optimal, efficient experience, especially on their mobile devices. Websites need to mind the shorter attention span and decreased tolerance for useless steps.”

That doesn’t mean consumers are spending less, though; in fact, the amount of money people are forking out on online retail sites has increased 27 percent within those three years — largely thanks to quick and easy shopping experiences, the report said. With improved connectivity and the help of 5G cellular service, mobile sales are predicted to reach $12 billion by 2021.

Overall, smartphones continue to rise in prominence in other parts of the world, with India seeing the largest growth — an increase of 211 million users since the study’s launch. China follows closely with 169 million new mobile phone users since 2015.

Adobe Analytics surveyed a trillion visits to more than 5,000 websites from January 2015 to December last year.

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