Want to Win Black Friday? Acquire New Mobile Shoppers in September

By Trace Ronning | July 21, 2016
Shopping

It’s still summer, but the time to begin acquiring mobile holiday shoppers is almost here. To help retail and ecommerce marketers succeed in having a huge mobile shopping holiday, Liftoff analyzed 12 months of app install campaigns and post-install purchase data to identify the key trends and opportunities.

Download the 2016 Mobile Shopping Apps Report now.

Some of our key findings include:

  • September is one of the best performing months for new user acquisition
  • Though acquisition costs increase in November, the volume in spending more than makes up for it.
  • New mobile shoppers spend fast, with 25% of new shopping app installs making a first purchase within 24 hours
  • Women install shopping apps with a greater intent to purchase than men

Win the holidays by acquiring new shoppers in September

September was one of the strongest months for mobile shopper acquisition. Though the average cost was $113.74 throughout the 12 months period analyzed, in September, the cost per first purchase was $87.25, making September the most cost effective month for user acquisition. New users also converted at a higher rate in September, with an install-to-first-purchase rate of 5.8%.

Because of the low user acquisition cost and high install-to-first-purchase conversion rate, September was a very attractive month to acquire shoppers before the holidays rolled around and user acquisition costs increased substantially.

Mobile shopping apps kicked off the holiday shopping season with a strong November

In November, user acquisition costs increase to $96.35 while first purchase rates took a dip to 4.9%. Yet mobile shoppers spent much more per purchase. On Cyber Monday, the average shopper spent $102.20 per order, 50% higher than the average order size of $68.00 throughout the year.

Between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday, consumers spent more than $7.5 billion shopping on mobile devices, making November a can’t miss month for shopping apps to bring new users on board.

Shopping app users purchased fast and purchased often

The average mobile shopper completed their first purchase within 6 days of installing a shopping app, with their second purchase coming within 13 days of install.

We also found that 25% of users who completed a purchase did so within 24 hours of install. For marketers, this data serves as a useful barometer in determining when to re-engage with recent installs. Since a quarter of your shoppers will convert in the first day, consider retargeting new users within 24 hours of installing your app to get them convert while your app is fresh in their minds.

install-to-purchase-graph_1

Women shop more and faster than men

Female users are more valuable shoppers on mobile than males in every meaningful statistic. Women were 26.8% more likely to install and make a purchase than their male counterparts. Women were also quicker to make their first shopping app purchase, averaging 4.5 days to complete a purchase post install, while it took men 6.8 days to open up their wallet.

For additional insights to help you plan your mobile holiday marketing campaigns, download the full 2016 Mobile Shopping Apps Report.