A recent analysis of global e-commerce performance in the first quarter of 2024 reveals modest growth, with consumers seemingly holding back their spending for more significant shopping moments throughout the year. The study is by Salesforce.
The report indicates a 2% increase in online sales, partly driven by a slight increase in the average order value (AOV). Despite this growth, the overall order volume decreased by 2%, except for mobile devices, which saw 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, accounting for 78% of traffic and 66% of orders.
In terms of marketing, email continues to lose ground, while push notifications, SMS and over-the-top (OTT) messages gain ground, now representing 23% of all messages sent.
The overall conversion rate remained stable at 1.7%, as did the average spend per visit, which stayed at $2.48. The average discount rate in the first quarter was 18%, unchanged from the same period of the previous year.
The use of site search accounted for 6% of visits, representing 15% of all orders globally. Meanwhile, traffic from social media increased to 9%, with steady growth in the share coming from tablets.
Cart abandonment rates remained stable, with desktop leading in terms of checkout completion (77% abandonment) compared to mobile (86% abandonment), indicating that there is still work to be done to reduce friction in the mobile checkout process.
This data suggests that while digital commerce continues to grow, consumers are being more cautious in their spending at the beginning of the year, possibly preparing for more significant shopping events in the coming quarters.
