RichRelevance Q1 Shopping Insights™ Study Reveals Significant Differences in UK Shoppers’ Buying Behaviour Across Platforms

Brits make their largest and most expensive purchases on iPhones compared to their American counterparts who prefer the iPad

Reading, UK — 18 April 2012 — RichRelevance®, leading provider of dynamic personalisation for the world’s largest retailers and brands, today unveiled new research from its Shopping Insights™ organisation on mobile shopping in the UK. The report, The 2012 Q1 Shopping Insights™ Mobile Study identified trends in mobile shopping behaviour across mobile devices and desktop and compared the behaviour of British shoppers with their American counterparts. As mobile shopping continues to rise, this data provides retailers with valuable insight that can be used to personalise the customer experience whenever and wherever they shop.

“Today’s consumers visit retail websites from multiple platforms throughout the day. Whether they are shopping from their desk at work, browsing on their mobile phone while in the queue at lunch or making a purchase at home in the evening from their iPad, they expect a consistent experience that is optimised for any device they choose,” said Darren Hitchcock, vice president of UK and European territories, RichRelevance. “This data demonstrates that retailers have an opportunity not only to provide that seamless experience to customers, but think about how customers are shopping at different times of the day and week and to personalise their merchandising strategy around that behaviour.”

The 2012 Q1 Shopping Insights Mobile Study is based on more than 1.1 billion shopping sessions on UK and US retail websites between 1 January and 25 March 2012. These retailers include mass merchants, as well as small and specialty retailers. Key findings include:

Mobile spend on the rise

• In March, shopping on mobile represented a 9.1% revenue share of all e-commerce sales, up nearly a percentage point (from 8.2%) since the Christmas shopping period.
• Mobile shopping continues to outpace desktop purchasing. In March, the average purchase on mobile was £109.68 compared to £100.05 on desktop computers.
• The majority of mobile revenue comes from iPads which account for 82% of all mobile spend.
• However, March average order values (AOV) were highest on iPhones, jumping up significantly from the prior month. March iPhone purchases averaged £135.63 compared to £119 on other mobile devices, £111.41 on the iPad and £107.70 on desktop.
• The most expensive purchases were made on the iPhone, at an average of £84.77 per item compared to £74.38 on other mobile devices, £69.63 on iPad and £38.46 on desktop.

Desktop users more likely to convert, buy more items

• Although they had the lowest AOV, consumers who shopped on desktop computers were most likely to convert. Conversion rates on desktop were 3.6% in March compared to 2.9% on iPad, 1.2% on iPhone and 1% on other mobile devices.
• The average purchase on desktop contained 2.8 items on average, more than any other platform. iPad purchases were a close second, with 2.5 items per order. All other mobile devices, including iPad, contained an average of 1.6 items per order.

iPad users log longer shopping sessions, shop on evenings and weekends

• Shoppers on the iPad viewed the most pages, logging an average of 9.89 page views per session in March compared to 8.86 pages on desktop, 5.16 pages on other mobile devices and 4.34 pages on iPhones.
• iPad share of shopping sessions (viewing, not necessarily buying) increases on the weekends, reaching 10% on weekends vs. 8.2% during the week. However, the peak days for shopping on iPad are Wednesday and Sunday, during which 11% of shopping sessions happened on the device.
• iPad share of sessions climbs in the evening hours, from around 5pm until 9pm with peaks at 4pm, 8pm and 10pm.

Comparing UK and US habits

• Brits were nearly twice as likely to spend on mobile as Americans, where mobile accounted for only 4.6% of revenue.

• American shoppers made their largest purchases on their iPads: the average order value was $158 for iPad vs. $105 for other mobile devices vs. $104 for iPhone and other iOS devices in March 2012.
• Whilst the percentage of shopping sessions on iPads also rose in the US on weekends, iPad share of shopping sessions reached only 7% on weekends compared to 5% during the week.

About RichRelevance
Over 350 million times per day, RichRelevance is powering the personalised shopping experiences for consumers shopping the world’s largest and most innovative retail brands like Marks & Spencer, John Lewis, Walmart, Sears and Target. Founded and led by the e-commerce expert who helped pioneer personalisation at Amazon.com, RichRelevance helps retailers increase sales and customer engagement by recommending the most relevant products to consumers regardless of the channel they are shopping. RichRelevance has delivered more than $5 Billion in attributable sales for its retail clients to date, and is accelerating these results with the introduction of a new form of digital advertising called Shopping Media which allows manufacturers to engage consumers where it matters most—in the digital aisles on the largest retail sites in world. RichRelevance is headquartered in San Francisco, with offices in London, New York, Seattle and Boston. For more information, please visit www.richrelevance.co.uk.