Tablet Users Are Leading From the Front in Ecommerce

We all know that mobile commerce has been on the rise in the last few years. Almost all ecommerce sites have made it a point to make their websites mobile friendly to increase their sales and revenue. This silent revolution is however being led by the tablet users who form a size able customer base globally. A recent survey conducted on the user trends has thrown out some interesting results. Tablet users are seen to be leading the way in shopping for products and services online and in many cases even stand ahead of their desktop/laptop counterparts.

According to the survey 48% of the tablet users fall in the age group of 18-34 years which is one of the key target areas of most ecommerce stores. This is the segment of the customers that accounts for maximum sales for online stores. Also 43% of the tablet owners have a household income upward of $50000 making them financially stable and more likely to shop for products and services online compared to an average American who browses the Internet regularly. With the number of tablet users increasing with each passing day what these figures reveal us is that tablet users will soon become the key target area for online businesses.

Another thing that has come out of the survey is the fact that the conversion rate or the percentage of leads turning into sales is substantially higher among the tablet users compared to the desktop users. While desktop users have a conversion rate of around 3% it is around 4.5% among the tablet users. These figures shouldn’t come as a surprise at all as tablet users are more likely to be wealthier compared to the desktop users. Also most of the tablet users also have a desktop or laptop that they can use to shop online.

The survey also focussed on the tablet versus phone debate and its relation to the ecommerce stores. Before the advent of the smartphones very few mobile users would actually seal a deal using their phones. But this trend changed once we because used to smarter phones with larger screens. Tablets seem to have taken this to the next and are far exceeding the number of sales using hand held gadgets compared to mobile phones. At least 10% of the tablet users browse through online stores or shop on a daily basis compared to 6% users. This figure reaches around 19% when we are taking about a week’s time.

To make the most out of this emerging trend ecommerce store owners need to make their stores friendly towards the tablets. There are many ways in which they can accomplish these tasks such as making the site iPad-Friendly considering substantial numbers of tablet users own an iPad. They can also make the checkout process much more finger and gesture friendly. They can also get shopping apps developed and promote these apps among their regular customers to hook them on to their online stores.