Value of a Click: Mobile vs Desktop

With a shortened holiday season in 2013, marketers are looking for any and every advantage. This year, the advantage will be given to those that effectively balance their mobile and desktop email intiatives. 

According to a new report from YesMail (Interactive Email Compass 3Q13), 16 percent of all sales that are driven by email will now happen via a mobile device. What's interesting is that more than half (56 percent) of those mobile sales will be completed on a tablet and 44 percent will completed on a smartphone. 

Yesmail is reporting that while the email conversion rate is much higher for desktop than mobile (3.7% vs. 1.3%), the revenue per mobile click is nearly double that of a desktop click. What that indicates is that mobile clicks lead to purchases more frequently, even though emails are clicked less often. Desktop, however, is the clear leader when it comes to average order value.