• by Steve Smith , Staff Writer @popeyesm, September 9, 2014

As the world awaits Apple’s expected announcement today that it is entering the mobile payments arena, you don’t need breathless tech pub headline to know that the connection between personal devices and the retail experience will only tighten and further disrupt a struggling channel. All aspects of the retail experience have been altered by the smartphone and tablet.

But it is the velocity of these changed behaviors that continues to dazzle. M-commerce platform Branding Brands, which powers mobile for over 200 retailers like American Eagle, Sephora and Crate & Barrel, says it saw mobile finally outstrip desktop for number of site visits in August. In an admittedly selective sample of 25 major retailers and 64 million visits, 50.7% of visits came from devices and 49.3% from non-device sources.

It's important to keep basic behavioral differences in mind to qualify the raw mobile stats. In general, people use mobile to visit sites much more frequently and for shorter bursts than they do on desktops. So mobile numbers always feel inflated and divorced from more important engagement and conversion metrics. Still, Branding Brands stats indicate at the very least the integral role mobile is playing in path to purchase. Moreover, the sheer acceleration of mobile use is daunting. Only four years ago the share of visits to major retailers from devices was just 4%. So we really are talking about a sea change in how, where and when consumers access retail brands.

The key behavioral shift involves smartphones. We are getting more comfortable doing more on smaller screens. While the number of visits from tablets increased 13.9% year-over-year, they mushroomed 23.5% on phones. We are using the handset for deeper drills, with pageviews up 49.4% compared to tablets, up 20.2%.

But it is the all-important conversion where we are seeing the most mobile growth. On Branding Brands’ sample of retailers, orders coming from smartphones increased 64%, and revenue was up 89.3%. Still, overall, desktop continues to lead in conversions, at 3.43%, compared to 2.47% on tablets and 1% on handsets.

Holistically, the rap on mobile remains true. People do research and look-ups on their phones but they convert on larger screens. But this also speaks to how critical omnichannel synchronization must be for retailers. Little things like cross-channel cart retention, persistent search and browsing histories, handoffs across devices -- all take on increased importance as decisions get made in quick but iterative ways across multiple screens.   

As Apple enlarges its screens and tacks on payment mechanisms to its next generation of handsets, it finds itself in the dominant position when it comes to U.S. retail. While its retail sample tends to skew to stylish brands that would also attract iPhone owners, Branding Brands’ operating system breakdown demonstrates how Apple maintains its special power. 61.2% of all mobile visits came from iOS devices in August, and so did 53.7% of revenue. Despite the overwhelming advantage Android devices have in raw reach over Apple, its more fragmented customer base simply use their devices less often for digital interactions. Their average includes many lower-end and less digitally adventurous owners who probably bought a smartphone because it is de rigueur now. Apple buyers tend to be in it for the interactivity.

While mobile payments represent a cash cow for the many large, small, legacy and startup companies flooding the space, for marketers it represents a data dog that hunts. Being able to tie digital promotions and ad exposures directly to eventual point of sale closes the loop in a way never before imagined.