'Net Features : tablets

Tablet Wars: Microsoft Grabs 7.4% Of Tablet OS Market

Pete Prestipino — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 13:20:00 GMT

Microsoft captured 7.4% of the global tablet OS market according to preliminary figures from Strategy Analytics' Global Tablet OS Market Share: Q1 2013 report, with three million Windows 8 tablets shipped in Q1 2013.

Microsoft’s share of the tablet operating system market is dwarfed by that of iOS and Android. Apple’s share in the first quarter was 48.2% and Android 43.4% according to Strategy Analytics.

Some analysts suggest that the only barrier to future growth for Microsoft’s tablet OS is the lack of applications. With a larger market share though, will Internet businesses, digital marketers, and app developers decide it is time to start developing apps for the Windows 8 experience?

Key Q4 '12 Insights for Merchants

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 19:55:00 GMT

Data is continually emerging about the performance of online retailers in the final quarter of 2012. Monetate's latest release of its ECommerce Quarterly Report (EQ4 2012) for example, reveals several important trends and includes analysis of key performance indicators including conversion rates and average order value by both device and inbound referrers.

Some of the more noteworthy insights include:

: The Expanding Ecommerce Window :
During the last holiday season, ecommerce conversion rates plummeted after “Free Shipping Day” (Dec. 17) even though retailers continued free shipping promotions beyond the date. Monetate suggests that a consumer “doubt gap” on shipping has emerged, presenting an opportunity for retailers to prove to consumers they can deliver the goods in a shorter window, extending shopping opportunities.

: The Mobile Issue Remains :
On Christmas Day 2012, according to Monetate's data, almost one-third of all ecommerce traffic came from smartphones (16%) and tablets (15.6%). Just a year earlier, less than half of that amount of traffic (14.5%) came from smartphones (6.4%) and tablets (8%). Monetate suggets that online business which do not tailor their web experience for smartphones and tablets run the risk of alienating (or losing) customers.

: Smartphone Conversions Rise :
Conversion rates on smartphone devices remain low (1.2% compared with 4% for tablets), yet smartphone traffic hovered over 10%. These numbers point to consumers using smartphones primarily as “retailer prompted research” tools; this sets the stage for retailers to get more creative in driving the smartphone experience through to conversion.

“One of the most telling insights from the EQ4 2012 is the Christmas Day device data,” said Kurt Heinemann, CMO, Monetate. “On Dec. 25th, 15 percent of all ecommerce traffic came from tablets, whereas the average tablet traffic percentage in December was about 10 percent. This reveals the mobile is increasingly the device of choice. When consumers have leisure time and any device at their disposal, they reach for the tablet or smartphone. Ecommerce had better be paying attention to this trend.”

Optimizing for Today’s Tablet Shoppers

Administrator — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 19:00:00 GMT

By Ken Burke, Founder and Executive Chairman, MarketLive

The numbers don’t lie. Tablets are taking over e-commerce.

The latest indicators of the tablet phenomenon surfaced over the 2012 holiday kick-off weekend. Data captured across several MarketLive merchants revealed the following statistics:

**Tablet traffic accounted for 8-19 percent of total shopping traffic from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday

**Total sales from tablet devices ranged from 7-17 percent, with iPads representing a disproportionate 94 percent majority

**Tablet shoppers converted as much as 38 percent higher and average order sizes were up to 15 percent greater

Tablets also figure prominently in pre-sale consumer activities. More than half of tablet users have looked up product and price information, searched for store location, or read customer reviews at least once in the last month and 17 percent have done so almost daily. Unfortunately, with respect to their tablet experiences, more than 40 percent of tablet users report that they regularly experience problems such as site crashes, functionality breakdowns and formatting issues.

So if you’re looking to boost sales, optimizing your e-commerce site for tablet users could give you just the edge you need. Admittedly the tablet landscape continues to evolve rapidly and is not without a few challenges brought by the growing array of new devices. Still, deploying a few key optimizations to tailor your online shopping experience for tablet visitors, without committing to native app development or to a complete, responsive design influenced re-platform, is an efficient, winning approach. What follows is a few of the recommendations for tablet optimizations.

The Need for Speed

The bar is high. According to Compuware, more than two thirds of tablet users expect websites to load just as quickly, or quicker, than they would on a desktop computer – in two seconds or less. A challenge, since tablet access is often via 3G or slow, public Wi-Fi networks. However, following a few basic development guidelines can rev up your site’s performance across all devices and networks:

• Make sure all page images are highly optimized. Consider using a CDN (Content Delivery Network) to help.

• Limit the number of animations on each individual page.

• Remove legacy/unused JavaScript, CSS and tags.

• Reduce the number of ‘Include’ files.

The Significance of Swipe

Tablet users expect to be able to use their fingers to swipe, zoom and pinch. If key areas of your site aren’t swipe-able these visitors are more likely to abandon out of frustration. Presenting a slightly modified, swipe-friendly experience to these visitors is one of the most important tablet optimizations you can make:

• Modify featured content. Swipe-friendly features keep users browsing and shopping. Replace static feature areas and button controlled sliders with scrolling, swipe-able content.

• Update product carousels. On the desktop, product carousels are a great way to showcase top-selling products and special product assortments using a minimal footprint. Detect tablet visitors and switch from button to swipe control for improved satisfaction and increased exposure.

• Adjust alternate views. On your product detail pages, make it easy for users to switch between alternate images with a simple swipe.

“Tap-Ability” and Finger-Friendly Design

Good gesture-based interface design recognizes that tablet users “tap.” The easy click precision of the mouse arrow is almost impossible with finger access, so some of the most effective tablet optimizations you can tackle are to make sure key areas are “tap-ready:”

• Be “fat-thumb” friendly. Make buttons large and bright. Replace tightly clustered, small text menus with well-spaced buttons or larger text links, separate long category lists into small groups, and always be sure to surround all clickable elements with ample white space. These tactics improve click accuracy and activity and are proving equally successful as desktop enhancements.

• Replace hover interactions. The hover states used in navigation drop-down menus, button designs and to bring up quick view and “more info” windows can be extremely effective on desktop sites but can be almost impossible to control on many tablets. Often completely unsupported, they can result in frustrating click errors as tablet visitors make repeat attempts to open and close hover content. Instead, use fixed place buttons and links to invoke drop-downs and modal windows. Tip: don’t forget to incorporate large, finger-friendly visual cues including large close buttons to facilitate easy, accurate window exits.

• Create “tap-ready” order options. Replace product configuration drop-downs, such as color, size and other order options with “tap-on, tap-off” design elements. Color swatches, boxes with sizes inside and other picture-based elements are efficient and effective.

• Eliminate Flash animation. The ubiquitous use of Flash in website design presents challenges unique to Apple devices since the technology is unsupported. Although the adoption of Android and Windows devices is on the rise, iPad ownership and shopping visits are disproportionately large. To eliminate the frustration caused by broken content displays, replace Flash functionality with JavaScript, HTML5 and in some cases, static content.

(Example: large, easy-tap buttons in a tablet-ready, accordion checkout.)

Save Typing, Save Sales

Consumers generally prefer to use tablets over mobile phones for online shopping, yet one in five finds tablets as cumbersome as phones when it comes to entering information (Forrester Research). The right adjustments to search and forms will mitigate many tablet abandons and directly impact conversion and sales. Prefill or suggest content to limit typing wherever possible, and when there is no alternative:

• Help site search users with predictive, “type ahead” search suggestions.

• Prefill forms anywhere possible.

• Always invoke the appropriate keyboard for each field, e.g. alpha for name fields, numeric for zip code fields, etc.

• Make form fields large enough and long enough for the text required.

• Deploy clickable plus/minus signs for quantity adjustments.

• Use drop downs when there’s no other alternative.

(Example: This merchant's leverages good site search, improving the customer experience.)

If You Build It, Will They Come?

What is your best option for implementing a tablet strategy? Should you modify your laptop/desktop website for tablet visitors? Re-platform using responsive design techniques? Build a special tablet application? At present, the prevailing approach seems to be adopting a wait-and-see attitude to gain a clearer understanding about the primary needs, expectations and behavior of tablet shoppers. Most consumers surveyed by Forrester within the last year still generally prefer the “traditional” site during their shopping experience.

One already proven certainty is that a modest, immediate investment in an improved tablet experience can have a measurable impact on satisfaction and sales, and many of the same optimizations even enhance your desktop site effectiveness. Whether not to you decide to ultimately invest in building a separate app for tablet users, or to update your platform around responsive design, it’s still vital to start optimizing for tablet traffic as quickly as possible.

About the Author:

Ken Burke is the Chairman, Founder, & Chief Evangelist of MarketLive, Inc. Ken founded MarketLive Inc. as Multimedia Live in 1995 with $500 in start-up money. Under his guidance it has grown into a leading provider of e-commerce software and related solutions. Ken is the developer of the MarketLive Intelligent Selling System, MarketLive's enterprise-class e-commerce application designed to optimize selling opportunities, build relationships with customers and give merchants control over their online merchandising. Ken is the author of "Intelligent Selling: The Art & Science of Selling Online."

Advertisers Focusing on Tablet Devices

Allison Howen — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 08:30:00 GMT

Tablets seem to be the new focus of paid search, at least according to a new report from digital ad management platform provider Marin Software.

The U.S. Online Advertising Quarterly Report reveals that the share of paid search spend on iPad and tablet devices increased 40 percent quarter over quarter. This is due to an increased adaption of the devices by consumers, as well as the result of favorable performance metrics of advertisements on tablet devices.

According to the report, Q2 saw the share of paid search clicks resulting from mobile devices in the U.S. increase from 14 to 18 percent – while smartphones accounted for 10 percent of paid search clicks, tablets accounted for 8 percent. Additionally, share of clicks on tablets grew 33 percent quarter over quarter.

The report also reveals that paid search ads on tablet devices continue to show positive performance levels, especially compared to ads on desktop and laptop computers. For example, the cost-per-click (CPC) for paid search ads running on tablets is 18 percent lower than that of ads running on traditional computers, while the click-through rate (CTR) for paid search ads on tablets is 42 percent higher than ads on traditional computers.

"Right now, advertisers are getting the best of both worlds on tablets. The combination of high user engagement and favorable ad performance characteristics is a win-win for marketers," says Matt Lawson, Vice President of Marketing and Partnerships at Marin Software. "To capitalize on the window of opportunity savvy advertisers will become more device conscious, implementing campaigns directly targeted at tablet users. Revenue acquisition management platforms like Marin Software will be key in facilitating advertisers' cross-device campaigns."

The True Tablet Era is (Almost) Here

Allison Howen — Sat, 26 May 2012 22:00:00 GMT

More than 60 million Americans are predicted to own a tablet by the end of this year, which makes it no surprise that merchants have already noticed tablets driving a larger amount of their Web revenue.

In fact, a recent survey from Shop.org and Forrester Research reveals that 49 percent of retailers claim that their average order value from a tablet is now higher than traditional Web sales, while 28 percent of retailers claim that they are seeing about the same average order value from tablets as their website.

According to the survey, many smartphone and tablet users are discovering their websites because of search and email – with 8 in 10 retailers claiming that search and email are the top two drivers of a company’s Web traffic from smartphone and tablet devices. Additionally, retailers report that, on average, 20 percent of emails opened in a campaign are opened on a mobile device.

The survey also shows that merchants have become more comfortable with QR codes, with three-quarters of retailers offering their customers some type of barcode scanning option.

“Retailers have been apprehensive about committing to bigger mobile commerce and advertising budgets because consumer behavior and the device landscape are changing so quickly,” says Forrester Research Vice President and Principal Analyst Sucharita Mulpuru. “E-Commerce on desktops and laptops took time, too. But eventually, we expect that retailers will grow their mobile marketing budgets to address the fact that the mobile channel has unique aspects, like location-triggered messaging, that can be compelling ways for brands to connect with shoppers.”

Report Shows Consumers Getting More Personal

Michael Garrity — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 19:00:00 GMT

Local Corp. has unveiled the preliminary data from its report that shows that the modern consumer takes a highly personalized path to purchase and utilizes a wide variety of devices to do so, including PCs, smartphones and tablets.

Still, 90 percent of the shoppers surveyed said that a physical store was still important in the purchasing process.

However, as evidence of a changing landscape, 60 percent of respondents said they researched products or services several times a month using a mobile device of some sort. Meanwhile, PCs are still a major part of the purchasing process.

The survey’s results were culled from the responses of 1,026 consumers and explored their behavior across an array of mobile devices, including asking about preferences and plans for researching and purchasing multiple types of products. Ultimately, the survey reveals that due to the proliferation of available devices and channels, consumers are more frequently displaying pre-purchase behaviors based on their individually specific needs and interests.

Other interesting highlights from the survey include:

- 28 percent of researchers used two devices at a time to find information

- Over one-third of shoppers have made a purchase on a mobile device in the past six months, with tablet shoppers using their devices to shop more frequently

- 47 percent said they use smartphones to search for local information

- 42 percent of respondents said they use the Web to check inventory prior to shopping at a brick-and-mortar store

- Ratings/reviews and search listings top the list of most influential things to the shopper’s choice of destination at 41 and 37 percent, respectively

- 31 percent of shoppers expect to research products and services more on their smartphones in the next year, while 41 percent plan to use tablets more for research

Tablets More Important Than Social to Merchants

Pete Prestipino — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 15:30:00 GMT

The idea that social networks will revolutionize the ecommerce experience has yet to materialize. But tablets? That’s another story.

Baynote’s 2011 Online Holiday Shopping Experience report, which surveyed 1000 consumers between Cyber Monday and Christmas Eve, revealed that 80.2 percent of shoppers said that personal connections on Facebook or another social networking site did not influence their shopping decision. Just 9 percent of consumers purchased something from a retailers Facebook fan page. Keep in mind however that it is not always easy to measure "influence" as the sales cycle can in some cases be exceedingly long for social media.

For merchants that have optimized for the tablet experience however, Baynote's data looks very promising. 48.6 percent of tablet owners made a purchase through their device. And it's not just applications; responsive design presents a low-cost, high impact means to optimize for tablets.

One of the most interesting data points in the Baynote study was the relevance of personalized product recommendations by channel, and the usefulness of promotions. In both cases, email was the channel cited most frequently, beating out both search and social for the top spot.

Additional findings from the study, as it relates to retail websites in particular, include:
- 59% of all consumers purchased a product on a retail website.
- 93% of all consumers researched a product online and then purchased in a store.

Related content on Baynote from Website Magazine:
- A Perfect Pair: Personalization and Conversion
- Personalization in Daily Deals & Flash Sales
- Baynote and Monetate Announce Partnership

Tablet Commerce Continues to Grow

Michael Garrity — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 18:00:00 GMT

A recent comScore study shows that in September, 48 percent of tablet owners made at least one purchase on their device.

The study, published as a whitepaper report called "Digital Omnivores: How Tablets, Smartphones and Connected Devices are Changing U.S. Digital Media Consumption Habits," backs up claims that shopping is among the fastest growing trends in tablet usage.

What is really important to take away from the report, however, is that there seems to be a pretty distinct divide between tablet users who use the devices to do almost everything and more casual users who are less-attached to their tablets.

Those users who did report making a purchase on the device said that they used their tablets throughout the process, from product and store research and price comparisons all the way to the actual transaction.

Devoted tablet users clearly seem set on utilizing the devices in all areas of their daily lives, or at least all of the areas where it is applicable. Some predict that the upcoming release of the Amazon Kindle Fire should see the number of dedicated tabletaholics rise considerably.

Here are some charts that outline the numbers of "dedicated" tablet users compared to their casual counterparts:

Jumptap Predicts Promising Future for Tablets

Michael Garrity — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 22:30:00 GMT

Targeted mobile advertising specialist Jumptap made public its MobileSTAT Report for August yesterday, which looked at Jumptap network data and reveals some interesting tidbits, such as the fact that Maine was the number one state for tablet usage during the month.

Wyoming, Hawaii, North Dakota, Arkansas, Connecticut, Virginia, New Hampshire, Minnesota and New Jersey rounded out the top ten states in August that had the highest tablet traffic relative to overall mobile traffic.

The spike in tablet prevalence in the country's most northeastern state was "clearly driven by affluent vacationers," but really it speaks to larger trends in the mobile device market. Analysis firm Gartner estimates that tablet sales will reach 326.3 million units (almost the entire population of the United States) by the year 2015. Though previously considered more of a niche or novelty product, tablets could see a big upswing with many models getting lower pricepoints, like the less-than-$200 Amazon Fire.

Jumptap says that, based on the usage patterns it has seen, "the Gartner number may prove to be low."

According to the MobileSTAT Report, 56 percent of tablet traffic on the Jumptap network was actually produced outside of the U.S., whereas only 28 percent of overall mobile traffic on the network is not from the United States. This figure signals "deeper tablet penetration overseas."

A total of 91 percent of tablet traffic around the world was via Wi-Fi, which isn't a "truly mobile" method of accessing the Internet.

As for tablet operating systems, 75 percent of the traffic was from iOS. Android followed with 20 percent and WebOS clocked in at 4 percent.

The study didn't just focus on tablet use, however; it also compared network click-through rates (CTRs), App vs. Mobile Web market share, mobile marketing and demographic trends and the top mobile advertising verticals.

When it comes to smartphone statistics, the MobileSTAT Report shows that Android, iOS and Blackberry platforms (continue to) dominate the top three spots and own over 90 percent of the market share, with Android being the clear leader by hosting 47 percent of the network.

Still, iOS by Apple provides "the best direct response advertising performance" with an impressive CTR of 0.71 percent. The demographic groups who exhibited the highest mobile CTRs were users between the ages of 45 and 74, users with incomes of over $50,000 and male users. According to the Report, "a clear new challenge for advertisers is getting beyond CTR to connect with younger, less-affluent audiences whose presence on the Jumptap network is large, but whose propensity to click on ads is low."

As far as mobile verticals go, retail, automotive and entertainment were the largest in spending during August, while telecom, entertainment and insurance had the best CTRs.

Jumptap's MobileSTAT gives the industry a monthly look into targeting and audience trends in the mobile market buy using the company's unique, data-driven approach to mobile advertising. The results come from large quantities of network data that are run through a proprietary algorithm to analyze and normalize it.

It's Time to Redefine "Mobile"

Mike Phillips — Fri, 27 May 2011 18:30:00 GMT

These days you can't read a story about business, e-commerce or the economy without coming across something about "mobile." And if you take every report, statistic or survey as fact you might just be convinced that desktop computing has gone the way of the Dodo.

One of those recent surveys, JiWire's Mobile Audience Insights Report, found that 79 percent of mobile users are comfortable making purchases on their mobile devices and 50 percent "...are confident spending more than $100 on a purchase from their device – nearly 20 percent are even comfortable with purchases over $500."

Turn to the person to your left and ask if he or she is comfortable spending $100 using their mobile device. Then ask the person to your right the same question. According to this survey, one of them should say "yes." Ask five people if they would spend $500 using their mobile device, and one should say "yes."

Of course, the chosen mobile device is not necessarily a phone.

According to yet more research (this time from the E-tailing Group), tablet owners do more "mobile" shopping than smartphone users. Nearly 25 percent of tablet users made at least six purchases in the past six months, compared to 15 percent of smartphone users who had done the same.

Here's some more interesting research, this time from Google's AdMob, the world's leading mobile advertising network: In April, they found that 77 percent of 1,400 tablet users surveyed said that their desktop/laptop usage decreased after they started using a tablet. But, 82 percent of respondents said they primarily use their tablet at home.

So, technically, if one were to purchase a $500 item on their tablet, on their couch, this is a "mobile" purchase (and probably a 'comfortable' one, too). Consider this: If you were to go to a car dealership and they used an iPad to help you purchase a $30,000 car – is that a $30,000 "mobile" purchase? Is my laptop on my desk not "mobile" until I take it to Starbucks?

Now the advertising side is raising even more questions. AdMob claims that the network received 2.7 billion daily ad requests in April, up from 2 billion in January. Also according to AdMob, there are more than 80,000 mobile websites and apps in their network, up from 50,000 in January.

If an ad is served on a website on a tablet or mobile phone, is that one of the 2.7 billion ad requests? With today's mobile browsers becoming more sophisticated, mobile screens growing larger and the introduction of HTML 5, is there such thing as a "mobile website" anymore? If my "normal" website loads the same, fully-functional page on a tablet, is that my "mobile" website, too?

What is mobile? It's an important question that impacts everything from analytics to ad rates, which are currently quite different from the handset to the desktop.

But maybe a better question is; what isn't mobile?