More consumers today are beginning their online shopping on one device and moving to another before completing a purchase. In fact, studies have found multi-device journeys represent anywhere from 41% and 65% of all online purchases.
A study by Monetate found that retailers are only observing 15% of purchase sessions on two or more devices. This means they are failing to detect as many as 50% of those multi-device sessions.
This is causing retailers to miss steps in the customer journey, requiring a reset of personalization tactics for the next time the same consumer interacts with them on a different device. Thus, they are only able to deliver truly personalized experiences in a fraction of all ecommerce sessions and leaving revenue on the table.
Monetate found that when retailers do recognize consumers across devices, multi-device users outperform single-device users in several key areas including product views, add-to-cart, purchases and average order value. Tracked customers, who receive the benefits of a more cohesive, personalized experience, deliver more value to retailers because they are recognized throughout the purchase journey.
Retailers need to understand how customers transition between devices and use that knowledge to improve experiences and convert more visits into orders, Monetate found. They should also focus their efforts on reconciling customers across devices.
Tablet trails both mobile and desktop when it comes to multi-device journeys, representing 25% of traffic, but is better at conversion, Monetate found. While mobile and desktop both lead to purchases 54% of the time when used as a first or last touch, the rate is 59% for tablet.
Mobile and desktop are similar in terms of initial touches (mobile 40%, and desktop at 37%) and final touches (mobile 42%, desktop 36%). However, it’s mobile that often keep a multi-device purchase moving along, being used in more than 80% of all cases.
What retailers are finding today is that cross-device journeys are more valuable, according to Monetate. Shoppers tracked across multiple devices in an ecommerce journey outperform those shoppers who are not. For instance, product view rate (88% vs. 58%), purchase (55% vs. 6%) and AOV ($130 vs. $115) are all higher for tracked vs. non-tracked online shoppers, Monetate found.
Multi-device journeys tend to generate a higher quality of browsing data than other users. Fifty-percent of all multi-device journeys last at least six sessions and 14 days, according to Monetate. Shoppers tracked across multiple devices on average look at 36 products during 12 sessions, compared with an average of five product looks during two sessions for those using single devices.
The study found that retailers who can recognize customers across devices have access to six times more browsing data for each consumer. Using that data to provide more personalized, relevant shopping experiences throughout a customer’s shopping journey can deliver better results.
The disparity between multiple device and single device shoppers is a net positive for add-to-cart rate (71% vs. 12%) yet a negative for cart abandonment rate (45% vs. 8%).
Monetate concluded that retailers who aren’t tracking multiple device journeys are missing out on data identifying their most valuable customers, how often they’re interacting with their brand and what their on-site experiences look like.