Two thirds of APAC website traffic now mobile - study

Over two-thirds (72%) of total website traffic in Asia Pacific came from smartphones in 2020, up +16% globally from 2019, according to a new study by Contentsquare.

Despite the increase, the research reveals that half (51%) of mobile users bounce after viewing just one page.

The 2021 Digital Experience Benchmark incorporates global Contentsquare session data from some of the worlds biggest brands. The anonymised data set includes over 20 billion web sessions (4.3 billion of which were in Asia Pacific including Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, China, Indonesia, Hong Kong, India and Japan) from over 900 websites around the world.

"Mobile-first consumers in the APAC region are increasingly always-on and time-poor," says David Bochsler, Contentsquare managing director, APAC.

"For brands, optimising the mobile user experience is no longer a luxury, but a necessity to unlock the incredible potential of this user environment.

"There is a need to evolve eCommerce players understanding of user experience and how they interact with brands on their smartphones," he says.

Contentsquare's benchmark also found that in Asia Pacific, the luxury sector dominated mobile in 2020, with 80% of the industry's visits originating from a mobile device. Following closely behind were the telco and financial services / insurance industries, which had smartphone users make up 73% and 72% of all online visits respectively.

However, the research also reveals that desktop still dominates in the B2B (71%) and real estate (56%) industries, where visitors tend to access sites on work computers.

The report also highlighted the explosion of mobile app usage globally in the last year, which has seen mobile app screen views increase by +202%. Time spent on mobile apps peaked at the start of the pandemic, with a +91% increase in session time in March.

Niki Hall, CMO at Contentsquare adds, "Digital teams and business leaders are already familiar with the mobile imperative - one weve been designing for since Forrester started discussing a mobile-first approach almost 10 years ago.

"The acceleration of smartphone usage observed in 2020 serves as a reminder that to remain competitive today, you need to offer a seamless experience on both your mobile site and app," she says.

"Smartphones are no longer just another way for visitors to interact and shop with your brand they're becoming the preferred way for consumers to discover and research new products and services," says Hall .

And with almost half of mobile users exiting your site before they make it to the second page, brands should lean in to customer intelligence to ensure the experiences they design match users goals and expectations.