A recent analysis of global e-commerce performance in the first quarter of 2024 reveals modest growth, with consumers seemingly containing their spending for more significant shopping moments throughout the year. The study is from Salesforce
The report indicates a 2% increase in online sales, driven in part by a slight increase in the average order value (AOV). Despite this growth, the overall order volume decreased by 2%, except for mobile devices, that recorded a 2% increase in orders
Total traffic grew by 1%, led by mobile with a 5% increase. Mobile devices continue to be the main drivers of traffic and the preferred channel for placing orders, representing 78% of the traffic and 66% of the orders
In terms of marketing, email continues to lose ground, while push notifications, SMS and over-the-top (OTT) messages are gaining ground, now representing 23% of all messages sent
The global conversion rate remained stable at 1,7%, as well as the average spending per visit, that remained at $2,48. The average discount rate in the first quarter was 18%, unchanged compared to the same period of the previous year
The use of search on the site accounted for 6% of the visits, accounting for 15% of all orders globally. The traffic from social media has increased to 9%, with constant growth in the share coming from tablets
The cart abandonment rate remained stable, with desktop leading in terms of purchase completion (77% abandonment) compared to mobile (86% abandonment), indicating that there is still work to be done to reduce friction in the checkout process on mobile devices
These data suggest that, although digital commerce continues to grow, consumers are being more cautious with their spending at the beginning of the year, possibly preparing for more significant shopping events in the coming quarters
