Mobile accounted for two-thirds of Black Friday traffic

Dive Brief:

American shoppers conducted a majority of their Black Friday shopping around mid-day and at night, according to a Bloomreach report emailed to Retail Dive.
Per the report, U.S. shoppers used websites, email, search engines and social media to conduct their shopping during the holiday event. The report found a 16% increase in mobile direct website and email traffic, a 15% increase in mobile search engine traffic and a 76% increase in mobile social media search traffic in 2019 compared to last year.
The report also indicated an increase in both mobile and desktop traffic and sales. In the U.S., mobile sales increased by 17% and desktop sales increased by 15%, but mobile visits saw a 16% jump year over year compared to a 7% increase for desktop.

Dive Insight:

The Bloomreach report confirms the importance of omnichannel marketing to reach consumers wherever they are. The report found a 60% increase in spending via desktop and a 40% increase in spending through mobile from last year. But in terms of traffic, mobile traffic jumped by 65% compared to desktop traffic, which increased by 34% from 2018, according to the report.

The Bloomreach analysis also offers insight into which marketing channels can drive mobile and desktop traffic. Per the report, 66% of American shoppers using mobile devices to shop visited businesses' websites directly or through email marketing, followed by 14% through advertising search traffic and 13% via search engine. With U.S. consumers who shopped via desktop, 70% of consumers visited companies' websites directly or through email marketing, followed by 17% who arrived via search engine traffic and 12% through ad traffic.

Though a PMG report found that retailers increased their social commerce ad spending, it looks like desktop is where consumers are still willing to pay more cash. Bloomreach's findings align with previous reports from PayPal and BillTrust indicating that consumers are increasingly shopping via their smartphones and social media channels. Given that consumers appear to be making more purchases online through retailers' websites, it's even more critical that businesses have plans in place to prevent outages, especially during the all-important holiday shopping season.