Increased digital shopping was a huge boon for companies with mobile apps geared toward mcommerce and click-and-collect options. “As COVID-19 kicked in, Google searches for the word 'curbside' shot up exponentially,” said Andy Norman, president of North America at digital consultancy Mobiquity. “For anyone in retail, giving consumers the ability to order ahead, pay in-app and pick up orders curbside became pretty essential.”
Adjust and Liftoff published data last week that showed the cost of acquiring a retail mobile app user who made an initial purchase dropped by 50.6% globally, compared with April 2019. This was due in part to lower CPIs (costs per install), but also to greater consumer activity once the users were enrolled. In North America, CPIs actually rose 16.7% year over year, but conversion rates rose even more. In the US, the price to acquire a retail mobile app user who made a purchase dropped 75.2% in that timeframe.
We expect that the effects of the pandemic will accelerate long-term trends in mobile usage. Although some gains with mcommerce and other mobile activities will not last beyond quarantines, the baselines for mobile activities will be higher than they would have been otherwise.
Overall, we forecast US adults will spend 24 additional minutes on their mobile devices in 2020. In 2021, they’ll add only 4 minutes—but the total of 4 hours, 22 minutes (4:22) will still be 28 minutes more than we had forecast for that year in November 2019.