Think people don’t convert when they receive email on a mobile phone? Think again, advises columnist Jason Warnock, and he’s got the stats to back up his contention.
Have you noticed what’s going on with mobile? Revenue is at a record high, as more and more consumers use their smartphones to complete purchases.
Although positive sentiment toward smartphone commerce has been building for several years, we may finally be approaching the tipping point — the moment when the marketplace accepts mobile as a primary purchasing channel.
Commerce trends in email marketing
Over the past three years, we’ve seen a groundswell of consumer acceptance of mobile commerce. Although the upsurge in smartphones cuts across a range of marketing channels, it’s particularly evident in email marketing.
In the last three months of 2015, Yesmail Interactive (my employer) conducted research to quantify the role smartphones play in email marketing. The data showed that more than half of all email opens (51.7 percent) now happen on a smartphone.
But consumers aren’t just opening emails on their smartphones — they’re interacting with email content in ways that generate increased revenue for brands.
Desktop vs. mobile clicks
Mobile has steadily gained ground on desktops when it comes to share of clicks.
While desktops accounted for nearly two-thirds of all clicks in 2013, the number of clicks originating from smartphones is now roughly the same as those originating from laptops and traditional desktop units.
| Q4 2013 | Q4 2014 | Q4 2015 | |
| Desktop Clicks | 63.1% | 59.4% | 50.8% |
| Mobile Clicks | 36.9% | 40.6% | 49.2% |
Desktop vs. mobile CTO rates
There’s also evidence that smartphone users rely on their devices to interact with the brands that market to them.
The click-to-open (CTO) rate for desktops has continually declined, falling from 21.6 percent in 2013 to 15.3 percent in 2015. But over the same time period, the CTO rate has risen from 10.3 percent to 13.0 percent, a sign that consumers are more comfortable clicking on the offers they receive via smartphone emails.
| Q4 2013 | Q4 2014 | Q4 2015 | |
| Desktop CTO | 21.6% | 20.3% | 15.3% |
| Mobile CTO | 10.3% | 12.6% | 13.0% |
