More than ever, Canadians are using mobile devices to interact with retail, whether for online shopping or ordering food.
According to a report from media measurement and analytics firm Comscore, Canadians now spend more time on retail sites with mobile devices than they do with desktops. Further, the number of unique mobile visitors in 2018 increased by 13 percent compared to 2016. Desktop and laptop visitors fell 11 percent in the same period.
The study also looked at eight prominent retail brands in Canada, including Best Buy, Costco and Canadian Tire, and found that all eight saw over 50 percent of their visitors were mobile-only. On top of that, six of the eight brands saw a double-digit decrease in desktop-only visitors.
On the mobile delivery front, Comscore says SkipTheDishes saw a 160 percent year-over-year increase in unique mobile visitors and Uber Eats saw a 227 percent increase. Just Eat, however, fell by 34 percent.
Comscore also measured unique mobile visitors for three popular pizza venues, Domino’s, Pizza Pizza and Pizza Hut. Domino’s had the largest mobile reach, but only grew unique mobile visitors by 46 percent compared to Pizza Pizza’s 172 percent increase. Pizza Hut clocked in with a 36 percent increase.
Finally, the report notes that more Canadians are adopting mobile payments. Over the last two years, the number of people who used mobile e-payments or money transfers increased from 40 percent to 43 percent, with 31 percent having used those payment methods in the current month.
Overall, the stats show mobile is increasingly becoming the place where consumers do online shopping, ordering and more. Retailers could benefit from tailoring their online experiences to mobile devices.
The data in the report comes from a global panel — which includes 35,000 Canadians — who opt-in to share interaction metrics with Comscore, such as what devices they use and which retailers they access online.
Update 02/13/2019 at 11:45am: Added clarification regarding how Comscore collects data.
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