August 12, 2013
By Maria Minsker, contributing writer

Smartphone Users Spent More Time on Retail Sites, Study Reveals

Mobile now leads the retail category for time spent on retailers' Web sites, having increased by nearly 400 percent since 2010, according to new data released by Millennial Media.

The data showed that men are the predominant mobile-retail site visitors, and are most likely to use mobile to compare prices or scan bar codes. Women, on the other hand, are most likely to use mobile to send product images to friends or find coupons. Millennial Media also found that most mobile surfers visiting retail hubs have an household income greater than $75,000.

The study assessed not only consumer behavior, but also retailers' approaches to mobile campaigns, revealing that while 37 percent of retail campaigns focused on increasing foot traffic, 24 percent focused on driving mobile/site traffic and just over 40 percent included store locator options and direct-purchase options.

Results from a related study revealed that e-commerce in general is performing solidly this year. According to data from comScore, desktop-based retail spending is up more than 15 percent for Q2, despite being outperformed significantly by mobile—online shoppers spent more than $49.5 billion online in the second quarter of 2013.

"The second quarter of 2013 saw a healthy acceleration in the online spending growth rate, to nearly sixteen percent, on the strength of a particularly enthusiastic April from consumers," comScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni says. "Increased spending growth for the quarter not only reflects the long-term share shift towards digital commerce, but also the near-term signals of sustained improvement in consumer sentiment. This strength is particularly significant since the second quarter tends to be seasonally lighter for e-commerce, and, as such, represents a positive indicator for the back half of the year."