Fashion Retail on the Go:
Analyzing Last-click Channel
Contribution via Mobile
Contents
INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
FASHION RETAIL ON MOBILE: PAID VS. UNPAID
SHOPPING SESSIONS: ALL FASHION STORES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
FASHION RETAIL ON MOBILE: ENTERPRISE
PAID VS. UNPAID SHOPPING SESSIONS:
ENTERPRISE FASHION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
THE SOCIAL SPOTLIGHT: PAID VS. UNPAID
MOBILE PERFORMANCE ACROSS SOCIAL NETWORKS . . . . 13
THE SOCIAL SPOTLIGHT: PAID VS. UNPAID
SOCIAL PERFORMANCE ACROSS
ENTERPRISE FASHION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
REFERENCES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
FASHION RETAIL ON THE GO: ANALYZING LAST-CLICK CHANNEL CONTRIBUTION VIA MOBILE2 FASHION RETAIL ON THE GO: ANALYZING LAST-CLICK CHANNEL CONTRIBUTION VIA MOBILE 3
FASHION RETAIL ON THE GO: ANALYZING LAST-CLICK CHANNEL CONTRIBUTION VIA MOBILE FASHION RETAIL ON THE GO: ANALYZING LAST-CLICK CHANNEL CONTRIBUTION VIA MOBILE4 5
Introduction
Like many digital commerce verticals, online fashion shopping has
recently reached a global tipping point — mobile-savvy consumers in
the fashion industry alone now generate an average 62% of traffic share
for online fashion retailers worldwide1. This essentially smashes an old
stereotype that mobile is only used as a means of browsing products.
And with social media a critical part of today’s mobile customer
journey — 96% of Facebook visits alone are made on a smartphone2 —
benchmarking mobile traffic and conversions by channel is critical for
retailers to understand how they are performing. This is what Fashion
Retail on the Go aims to achieve.
HOW WE MEASURED THE DATA
In this report, we measure mobile traffic, conversion, and order value
across Nosto-powered fashion retailers, both overall and enterprise-level
(the latter defined as stores generating more than $50m in annual online
sales). This data is analyzed on a “last click” basis — e.g. traffic and
ensuing purchases are attributed to the last referring site driving the
shopping visit.*
This data was sourced from a sample of 1.19 billion visits to
Nosto-powered online stores from November 2018 – January 2019.
Using this data, we analyzed performance across both paid and unpaid
shopping sessions as well as performance across major social media
networks as well as direct/affiliate traffic. Sources analyzed included (but
were not limited to):
• Snapchat
In addition, each analysis is broken down into the following KPIs:
• Number of site visits
• Conversion rate
• Number of orders
• Average order value
• Total order value
All channel definitions are on a last-click and tracking parameter basis:
i.e. where the shopper came from directly prior to arriving on a retailer’s
site as inferred from the referring domain and URL tracking parameters.
Thus, the percentages reflected in these results do not have a 1:1
relationship to the value of the channel in question. They do, however,
serve as a valuable benchmark for fashion marketers. Additionally, this
data can give context for marketing attribution decisions and help
identify the reasons behind some of the differences data marketers see in
web/mobile analytics systems vs advertising system reports.
Now, let’s dive in.
*The f igures presented in th i s repor t a re unaud i ted est imates and sub ject to ad justment . V i s i t s der iv ing f rom the ema i l channe l
a re not b roken out separate ly and inc luded in “Other ” .
FASHION RETAIL ON THE GO: ANALYZING LAST-CLICK CHANNEL CONTRIBUTION VIA MOBILE FASHION RETAIL ON THE GO: ANALYZING LAST-CLICK CHANNEL CONTRIBUTION VIA MOBILE6 7
Shopping Sessions: All Fashion Stores
FASHION RETAIL
ON MOBILE: PAID VS. UNPAID
*Pa id and unpa id sess ions a re based on l ast c l i ck .
To start, we’ve mapped out an overall look of the state of the market in
mobile fashion shopping — specifically, the contrast between paid and
unpaid shopping sessions via mobile.
The analysis and attribution of traffic sources remains a challenge for
a number of mid-market and enterprise-level retailers; just one of the
complex layers of the digital customer journey. Shoppers may traverse a
number of channels before landing on a retailer’s website (for instance,
discovering a product via a blogger’s Instagram page, which may lead the
shopper to search for that product via a search engine).
The data shows that the majority of traffic to online fashion stores
derives from unpaid sources like Search and Direct (the latter being a
catch-all for any traffic that does not have referral or tracking parameter
data — either visitors came directly to the site or it was untracked). While
this shows where shoppers click last before they land on a retailer’s
website (as mentioned already in the intro) these are not the only sources
retailers should focus on to increase product discovery and performance.
(More on this point in section 3.)
A noticeable difference between paid and unpaid shopping sessions can
be seen in terms of orders, order value and conversion rate. This suggests
that fashion retailers are less reliant on paid sources to drive traffic and
conversions on a last click basis; however, this does not suggest any
conclusions about the role of paid sources in driving marketing ROI. In
contrast, AOV between paid and unpaid mobile shopping conversions are
relatively similar. When it comes to shopping on mobile, organic traffic
drives the biggest share of visits and volume of orders, but it’s not the
channel that drives the highest order value on a last click basis.
TO START, WE’VE MAPPED OUT AN OVERALL
LOOK OF THE STATE OF THE MARKET IN
MOBILE FASHION SHOPPING — SPECIF ICALLY,
THE CONTRAST BETWEEN PAID AND UNPAID
SHOPPING SESSIONS VIA MOBILE* .
FASHION RETAIL ON THE GO: ANALYZING LAST-CLICK CHANNEL CONTRIBUTION VIA MOBILE FASHION RETAIL ON THE GO: ANALYZING LAST-CLICK CHANNEL CONTRIBUTION VIA MOBILE8 9
PAID
2 1 %
1 7 %
1 7 %
1 . 3 1 %
$74
1 .79 %
$73
8 3 %
79 %
8 3 %
VIS ITS
ORDERS
SALES
CONVERSION RATE
AVERAGE ORDER VALUE
UNPAID
THE ANALYSIS AND ATTRIBUTION OF TRAFFIC
SOURCES REMAINS A CHALLENGE FOR A NUMBER
OF MID-MARKET AND ENTERPRISE-LEVEL
RETAILERS; JUST ONE OF THE COMPLEX LAYERS
OF THE DIGITAL CUSTOMER JOURNEY.
FASHION RETAIL ON THE GO: ANALYZING LAST-CLICK CHANNEL CONTRIBUTION VIA MOBILE FASHION RETAIL ON THE GO: ANALYZING LAST-CLICK CHANNEL CONTRIBUTION VIA MOBILE1 0 1 1
Paid Vs. Unpaid Shopping Sessions: Enterprise Fashion
PAID
1 5 %
1 1 %
1 2 %
1 . 2 8 %
$78
1 . 8 3 %
$73
8 8 %
8 5 %
89 %
VIS ITS
ORDERS
SALES
CONVERSION RATE
AVERAGE ORDER VALUE
UNPAID
When analyzing performance across enterprise-level fashion retailers
(those who generate more than $50m in annual online sales), the contrast
between paid and unpaid shopping sessions is even greater. When
comparing AOV between paid sessions for enterprise fashion retailers
($78) and fashion retailers in general ($74), the former could indicate that
enterprise fashion retailers deploy more tactical up-selling/cross-selling
strategies on paid traffic.
FASHION RETAIL ON
MOBILE: ENTERPRISE
FASHION RETAIL ON THE GO: ANALYZING LAST-CLICK CHANNEL CONTRIBUTION VIA MOBILE FASHION RETAIL ON THE GO: ANALYZING LAST-CLICK CHANNEL CONTRIBUTION VIA MOBILE1 2 1 3
Mobile Performance Across Social Networks
When we break down this data by individual traffic sources and analyze
mobile performance across major social networks, some interesting
observations arise.
While Pinterest boasts an impressive 250 million monthly active users3,
this channel doesn’t drive a significant proportion of traffic or sales when
measuring results by last-click attribution (both paid and unpaid). In
fact, Pinterest looks to drive very little directly attributable results when
looking at web analytics data across visits, orders, sales and conversion
rate; but when it comes to AOV ($140) it outshines all other channels.
Other research supports this — shoppers on Pinterest are known to spend
approximately 29% more than shoppers who don’t use the platform4.
Additionally, users enter Facebook and Instagram primarily to connect
with other users, but Pinterest offers a channel for both discovery and
purchase. In fact, 83% of weekly Pinners have made a purchase based on
Pins they saw from brands5.
Meanwhile, paid search yields the highest last-click conversion rate
(1.50%), which supports the assumption that fashion shoppers converting
via this search are lower in the shopping funnel with higher shopping
intent — typically searching for a specific product or product category.
THE SOCIAL SPOTLIGHT:
PAID VS. UNPAID
FASHION RETAIL ON THE GO: ANALYZING LAST-CLICK CHANNEL CONTRIBUTION VIA MOBILE1 2
FASHION RETAIL ON THE GO: ANALYZING LAST-CLICK CHANNEL CONTRIBUTION VIA MOBILE FASHION RETAIL ON THE GO: ANALYZING LAST-CLICK CHANNEL CONTRIBUTION VIA MOBILE1 4 1 5
Instagram enables shoppers to follow fashion influencers and discover the
next best styles and trends. While this “top of the funnel” activity won’t
appear in an ecommerce marketer’s website analytics data, they can still
drive these users to follow their brand, which then makes it easier and
inexpensive to re-engage them with paid ads or with organic Instagram
content.
One possible reason behind Instagram’s low percentage of orders and
visits is that shoppers may often discover products while browsing the
app, but then either search for those products directly (attributing the
traffic to Direct) or saving the product link for later (also attributing to
the traffic to Direct sources and contributing to challenges in measuring
dark social10: content shared over private channels that cannot be
traced by any web analytics tools). Additionally, this suggests fashion
brands using this channel across paid and unpaid shopping sessions
are experiencing an “attribution gap” — where brands are spending a
significant amount of money on influencer marketing but may see a
return via another source (such as direct traffic).
The conversion rate across “Other” paid sessions — a mix of affiliate
networks, display ads and smaller regional social networks —is the second
highest via paid (1.30%). For unpaid, “Other” represents a mix of direct
traffic, email and untracked sessions (as noted, the percentage of email
attribution is not broken down separately due to variances in tracking for
email referrals).
“Other” is highest via unpaid (2.13%), while Snapchat yields a significantly
lower rate (0.05% via paid and 0.11% via unpaid). While Snapchat’s
popularity has decreased over time6, the platform is testing strategies
that leverage influencer marketing to help increase usage. One example
of this is the launch of Official Stories7, where popular content from select
Snapchatters is pinned to the main feed.
On Instagram, last-click conversion rate ranks third lowest relative to
other social channels across paid (0.54%) and unpaid (1.00%) shopping
sessions. The recent launch of the Instagram Checkout capability8, which
makes it easier for shoppers to buy the products they discover within the
app, means that shoppers can now browse and shop a retailer’s products
without stepping a digital foot onsite. While this may result in a lower
last-click conversion rate from this channel and a decreasing amount of
referred traffic, retailers will most likely generate higher revenue on high
intent shoppers through this new capability.
From a product discovery point of view, Instagram is a massive window
of opportunity for fashion retailers. After the platform rolled out their
algorithm-based news feed in 2016, brands on Instagram experienced
a 105% increase in monthly interactions9 - making it one of the most
crucial destinations for branding and product discovery in online fashion.
BRANDS ON INSTAGRAM EXPERIENCED A 105%
INCREASE IN MONTHLY INTERACTIONS - MAKING IT ONE
OF THE MOST CRUCIAL DESTINATIONS FOR BRANDING
AND PRODUCT DISCOVERY IN ONLINE FASHION.
FASHION RETAIL ON THE GO: ANALYZING LAST-CLICK CHANNEL CONTRIBUTION VIA MOBILE FASHION RETAIL ON THE GO: ANALYZING LAST-CLICK CHANNEL CONTRIBUTION VIA MOBILE1 6 1 7
CONVERSION RATE
AVERAGE ORDER VALUE
PA
ID
PA ID
UN
PA
ID
UNPAID
0.8
4%
$ 6 5 $ 5 6
$72 $ 6 4
$ 1 4 0 $ 6 5
$ 5 5 $ 5 8
$74 $ 69
$76 $75
1.1
5%
1.0
0%
0.1
2%
0.1
1%
1.2
5%
2.1
3%
0.5
4%
0.0
5%
0.0
5%
1.5
1%
1.3
0%
VIS ITS*
ORDERS**
SALES** *
PAID
PAID
PAID
UNPAID
UNPAID
UNPAID
*P in te rest (pa id) has a va lue of < 1% . P in te rest and Snapchat (unpa id) have a va lue of < 1% .
* *P in te rest and Snapchat (pa id + unpa id) have a va lue o f < 1% .
* * *P in te rest and Snapchat (pa id + unpa id) have a va lue o f < 1% .
Breakdown of pa id “Other ” : 80% = a f f i l i a te networks ; Rema in ing % a combinat ion of pa id sources (such as d i sp lay ads) and
sma l le r reg iona l soc ia l networks .
Breakdown of unpa id “Other ” : 95% = D i rect / unt racked / ema i l *
*Ema i l i s not b roken down separate ly due to var iances in t rack ing fo r ema i l re fe r ra l s .
1 0 %
6 %
5 %
6 %
4 %
4 6 %
1 5 % 79 %
4 8 %
1 6 % 76 %
4 6 % 4 6 %
7 % 5 % 2 3 % 6 4 %
4 0 % 47 %
SNAPCHAT
SEARCH
OTHER3
%2
%
2%
FASHION RETAIL ON THE GO: ANALYZING LAST-CLICK CHANNEL CONTRIBUTION VIA MOBILE FASHION RETAIL ON THE GO: ANALYZING LAST-CLICK CHANNEL CONTRIBUTION VIA MOBILE1 8 1 9
Social Performance Across Enterprise Fashion
When analyzing mobile performance for enterprise fashion retailers,
Search and affiliate networks continue to dominate paid channels.
Facebook drives the third-highest percentage of visits, orders, sales and
conversion rate across paid and unpaid shopping sessions. Similar to all
fashion retailers overall, Instagram and Pinterest drive lower percentages
of visits, orders and sales for enterprise retailers — though average
order value is the highest on these networks. AOV on Instagram via paid
($103) is higher across enterprise fashion retailers (paid AOV for overall
fashion retail is $72), once again suggesting that enterprise retailers may
invest more paid spend towards higher-ticket products or customers who
typically have higher AOV.
On Pinterest, conversion rate remains among the lowest via paid but
yields the highest AOV - this applies across both enterprise and fashion
stores overall. This, again, suggests that while fewer buyers originate
from Pinterest relative to other social channels, the ones who do are
inspired to either spend on higher-ticket products or add more items
to their cart via up-sell / cross-sell tactics. Snapchat continues to drive
minimal relative traffic and orders via last-click attribution for enterprise
and overall fashion retailers alike. However, as explained previously, this
platform also yields just as much discovery value for enterprise retailers.
THE SOCIAL SPOTLIGHT:
PAID VS. UNPAID
FASHION RETAIL ON THE GO: ANALYZING LAST-CLICK CHANNEL CONTRIBUTION VIA MOBILE1 8
FASHION RETAIL ON THE GO: ANALYZING LAST-CLICK CHANNEL CONTRIBUTION VIA MOBILE FASHION RETAIL ON THE GO: ANALYZING LAST-CLICK CHANNEL CONTRIBUTION VIA MOBILE2 0 2 1
CONVERSION RATE
AVERAGE ORDER VALUE
PA
ID
PA ID
UN
PA
ID
UNPAID
0.7
3%
$ 69 $ 5 8
$ 1 03$ 6 5
$ 1 5 4$ 6 8
$ 57$ 57
$ 8 4$ 69
$75 $75
1.2
4%
1.1
8%
0.1
2%
0.0
8%
1.5
3%
2.0
5%
0.4
1%
0.0
7%
0.0
3%
1.3
1%
1.4
2%
Breakdown of pa id “Other ” : 80+% = Af f i l i a te networks and pa id a f f i l i a te re lat ionsh ips ; 1 1% = Other soc ia l networks ;
9% = Other pa id ad networks .
Breakdown of unpa id “Other ” 95% = D i rect / unt racked / ema i l *
*Ema i l i s not b roken down separate ly due to var iances in t rack ing fo r ema i l re fe r ra l s .
VIS ITS*
ORDERS**
SALES** *
PAID
PAID
PAID
UNPAID
UNPAID
UNPAID
8 % 2%
5 %
4 %
4 %
3%
3%
3%
4 2 %
1 6 % 78 %
5 4 %
1 7 % 75 %
39 % 5 6 %
7 % 5 % 2 0 % 67 %
3 8 % 5 0 %
SNAPCHAT
SEARCH
OTHER
*P in te rest (pa id) has a va lue of < 1% . P in te rest and Snapchat (unpa id) have a va lue of < 1% .
* *P in te rest and Snapchat (pa id + unpa id) have a va lue o f < 1% .
* * *P in te rest and Snapchat (pa id + unpa id) have a va lue o f < 1% .
References
1. THE STATE OF FASHION ECOMMERCE IN 2019. NOSTO.COM
2. DEVICE USAGE OF FACEBOOK USERS WORLDWIDE AS OF
JANUARY 2019. STATISTA.COM
3. PINTEREST IS A UNICORN. IT JUST DOESN’T ACT LIKE
ONE. NYTIMES.COM
4. MARKETING ON PINTEREST MEANS RETHINKING THE OLD
PLAYBOOK FOR SOCIAL MEDIA. SHOPIFY.COM
5. HOW PINTEREST WORKS. BUSINESS.PINTEREST.COM
6. 6 REASONS SNAPCHAT IS LOSING ITS POPULARITY.
BUSINESSINSIDER.COM
7. WHAT SNAPCHAT TEACHES US ABOUT INFLUENCER
MARKETING. FORBES.COM
8. NEW TO INSTAGRAM SHOPPING: CHECKOUT.
BUSINESS.INSTAGRAM.COM
9. INSTAGRAM ENGAGEMENT: EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO
KNOW. SOCIALBAKERS.COM
10. HOW TO IMPLEMENT DARK SOCIAL IN YOUR INFLUENC-
ER MARKETING EFFORTS. SOCIALMEDIAWEEK.ORG
FASHION RETAIL ON THE GO: ANALYZING LAST-CLICK CHANNEL CONTRIBUTION VIA MOBILE2 2 FASHION RETAIL ON THE GO: ANALYZING LAST-CLICK CHANNEL CONTRIBUTION VIA MOBILE 2 3
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