Mobile shopping in the US is set to rise to a worth of $50 billion by the end of 2014 but it appears this will not be thanks to promotional efforts on social media.
Retailers are currently ploughing investment into advertising on the likes of Facebook and Twitter, although their calls to action seem to be missing the mark by some distance.
Research from predictive analytics platform Custora shows these networks driving a mere 0.6% of all e-commerce sales through smartphones in 2013. Email marketing was lauded for its effort in the same capacity, providing the vital assist for 26.7% of all orders made.
This highly direct form of contact will be imperative as m-commerce continues its upward trajectory. The market’s value has risen from $2.2 billion in 2010 to $42.8 billion in 2013, and looks set to report further growth at the end of the year.
To pay or not to pay?
Aside from email, another highly effective channel for reaching out to the growing number of mobile shoppers is paid search. Pay-per-click ads contributed to 13.3% of all smartphone conversions in the US last year, managing an even higher total of 24.8% on tablet.
Organic search was found to be more effective than its paid brethren in terms of smartphone commerce, accounting for 16% of all sales, but faltered when it came to advertising on tablet, its contribution dropping to 15.4%.
Affiliate marketers managed to chip in with 0.6% of sales on phones and 1.3% on tablets, but it was social media’s 0.6% and 0.2% in the same areas that stood out among the readings.
A full rundown of Custora’s results can be found below.
