Sales through smartphones increase 10.2% year over year, according to Adobe. But the average mobile ticket is 32% smaller compared with desktops.
Mobile drove 49.3% of all U.S. ecommerce spending in July 2024, according to new data from Adobe Analytics. In 2025, the web analytics vendor estimates that mobile shopping will consistently be half or more of all online sales.
Adobe Analytics’ data is based on analysis of 1 trillion visits to U.S. retail sites, 100 million SKUs and 18 product categories. Mobile sales include mobile web sales from both smartphones and tablets, however the vast majority is smartphone sales and tablets are a “non-material” portion of sales, according to Adobe. The vendor does not include app sales in these estimates.
For the first seven months of the year (January-July 2024) sales through mobile devices reached $280.4 billion, which was a 10.2% year-over-year increase, and represented 44.7% of all online sales. During January-July 2023, mobile sales were 46.6% of ecommerce spend.
Large promotional events are a main reason why mobile sales ticked up in July, according to Adobe. For example, Amazon’s Prime Day sales event and competing sales from other retailers, as well as Fourth of July sales all occurred within the month. On those days, mobile devices generated more than half of sales.
Notably, large retailers — with $1 billion or more in annual revenue — have a higher penetration of mobile sales, with small screens driving 53% of ecommerce sales. Mobile sales only generate 43% of online sales for smaller retailers — with $10 million-$100 million in annual revenue.
“This presents an opportunity for smaller retailers, as mobile tends to drive more impulse shopping and revenue growth in turn,” said Vivek Pandya, lead analyst, Adobe Digital Insights.
Consumers choose smartphones for online grocery shopping
In categories including personal care, grocery and apparel, mobile sales drove a large share of total online sales in July 2024, according to Adobe:
- Personal care – 77.0% of online sales from mobile
- Grocery – 68.2% from mobile
- Apparel – 60.8% from mobile
Despite higher prices, more consumers continue to shop for groceries online and on their mobile devices, according to Adobe. Online grocery sales reached $66.90 billion from January-July 2024, a 15% year-over-year increase.
But, online grocery prices in July were 4.18% higher compared with July 2023, according to Adobe’s Digital Price Index. Across all of the 18 product categories Adobe measures, online prices decreased 3.7% overall in July 2024 compared to July 2023.
Mobile drives cheaper purchases
Shoppers are less apt to tap buy on smartphones for larger purchases, as mobile only drove 21.3% of online sales in the electronics category in July 2024 and only 33.3% in the home improvement category.
“Adobe Analytics data shows that consumers have embraced mobile shopping for purchases that are more frequent and lower in price, but we expect larger purchase will begin to shift towards smaller screens as well,” Pandya said.
In fact, basket size on mobile devices are 32% smaller than on desktop, according to Adobe. This means there is still work to be done to improve the mobile shopping experience.
“[This] presents both a challenge and opportunity for brands to refine mobile experiences and close the gap to drive revenue,” Pandya said.
Looking ahead to the holiday season, Adobe forecasts mobile devices will generate 53% of ecommerce sales in November and December, up from 51% in 2023, 47% in 2022 and 43% in 2021.
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