Demandware, a Salesforce Company, Reveals Q2 Digital Commerce Grew, Buoyed by Dramatic Increase of Mobile Shoppers

BURLINGTON, Mass., Sept. 7, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Demandware®, a Salesforce (NYSE: CRM) company and the industry-leading provider of enterprise cloud commerce solutions, today released its Q2 2016 Shopping Index. Based on the buying activity of more than 400 million shoppers worldwide, the report found that retailers' charge towards "mobile-only" strategies continued into Q2 2016, while the growth of digital commerce continued.

The Q2 2016 Shopping Index reveals that shopping attraction, which measures the change in number of shoppers visiting digital commerce sites, increased 24 percent year over year (YoY). Shopper spend, which is measured by calculating the change in conversion rate and average order value, fell 1 percent YoY. Together, the changes in shopping attraction and shopper spend yield a Shopping Index value of 22 percent digital commerce growth in Q2 2016.

The dramatic increase in shopping attraction highlights a fundamental shift that retailers are dealing with: buyers are making more visits, and doing so across multiple devices.

To quantify this new reality of omnichannel shopping, Demandware has developed a new metric – buying intent – that measures which visitors have real buying intent and which visitors are just browsing, using key shopping activities including site searches, add-to-carts and checkouts. According to the Q2 2016 Shopping Index, 16 percent of shoppers show real buying intent on digital channels. Notably, mobile shoppers continue to send real buying signals, with buying intent increasing 8 percent on phones year-over-year (YoY)– the highest of any device.

"In today's new reality of omnichannel shopping, it's important for retailers to understand which visitors are truly considering making purchases, and which shoppers are merely looking," said Rick Kenney, head of consumer insights at Demandware, a Salesforce company. "Overwhelmingly, we're seeing shoppers showing true buying intent in digital, and yes, that means mobile shoppers."

Mobile Continues to Surge
For the fourth straight quarter, phones took order share from computers, and shoppers placed more than double the number of orders on phones than on tablets in Q2. Overall, 47 percent of all traffic in Q2 was on phones.

Going Social
Social media is becoming even more relevant for retailers, accounting for 2.7 percent of traffic to retail sites – a 55 percent increase YoY – and driving 1 percent of orders. Social also drives nearly 4 percent of mobile traffic. While these absolute numbers are relatively small compared to other channels, the growth rate versus mobile in its first years is significantly higher. These findings are a clear sign that shoppers are connecting and transacting with retailers in new, disruptive, and distributed ways.

To learn more, get the full Q2 2016 Demandware Shopping Index here.

About the Shopping Index
The Shopping Index measures digital commerce growth and is the product of two key factors — shopping attraction and shopper spend. Demandware sourced data from digital commerce sites transacting on the Demandware Commerce Cloud that were live since Q2 2015. The index incorporates the behavioral data of over 400 million shoppers interacting with those sites. The index and the corresponding set of key digital commerce metrics is published quarterly.

About Demandware, a Salesforce company
Demandware, a Salesforce company, is the category-defining leader of enterprise cloud commerce solutions, empowering the world's leading retail brands to continuously innovate in the complex, consumer-driven world. For more information, visit http://www.demandware.com, call +1-888-553-9216 or email [email protected].

SOURCE Salesforce