Behavioral data collected from “tens of thousands” of mobile consumers by Millward Brown Digital, Kantar and Lightspeed Research over the past year reveals some differences between mobile and desktop in terms of retail site visit distribution by time of day and day of the week. That’s according to new data released by Compete showing that mobile visits to retail sites tend to skew later in the day – and later in the week – than desktop visits.
Looking first at site distribution by time of day, the results indicate that almost half – 48% – of site visits from desktops occur between noon and 8PM, compared to 40% of mobile visits. Mobile visits tend to occur more during off-peak hours: 31% of visits come between 8PM and 4AM, compared to 24% of desktop visits, while another 10% come in the early morning (4-8AM), versus 8% for desktops.
The data suggests that mobile visits tend to skew towards times outside of traditional work hours, a relatively intuitive result that extends to days of the week. The analysis indicates that while Mondays and Tuesdays are the primary days for desktop visits (at a combined 31.5% share of total visits), Saturdays and Sundays are the most active days for mobile, with a combined 31.4% share of visits (versus 25.8% for desktops).
Understanding when mobile visits occur is especially important considering recent comScore data indicating that smartphone (44%) and tablets (11%) together account for a majority of online retail time.
