RETAIL INDUSTRY REPORT
ADOBE DIGITAL INSIGHTS | Q2 2017

RETAIL INDUSTRY REPORT | Q2 2017
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Overview
03 Key Findings
20 Glossary
21 Methodology
22-33 Tables
Key Industry Metrics
04 Quarterly Visits Trend
05 Quarterly Visits Growth Since Q2 2015
06 Visit Share by Device
07 Revenue Share by Device
08 Device Visit Share by Segment (Q2 2017)
09 Revenue vs Visit Share by Device (Q2 2017)
10 Conversion Trend by Device
11 Indexed Revenue per Visit by Device
12 Stickiness by Device by Category
13 Visit Duration Change YoY (Q2 2017)
14 Visit Share by Marketing Channel
15 Q2 Visit Share Growth by Marketing Channel
16 Revenue Share by Hour by Marketing Channel
18 Conversion by Time of Day by Marketing Channel
One-off Insights
17 Revenue Share by Hour: Email vs Others

RETAIL INDUSTRY REPORT | Q2 2017
KEY FINDINGS
1. Online retail visits have been experiencing slow growth in the past two years. However,
certain segments, like Apparel and Consumer Electronics retailers, have been growing
faster.
2. While mobile visit share has almost caught up to desktop, revenue is still driven primarily
by desktop.
3. Paid Search has been taking up visit share from Organic traffic. Social is still behind, but
it’s experiencing significant growth.
4. Search channels convert best in the afternoon, while more impulse prone channels,
Social and Display, convert best in the late pm, early am.

RETAIL INDUSTRY REPORT | Q2 2017
Quarterly Visits Trend
• Visits have been growing slowly
for the average online retailer.
• There’s a strong seasonality
pattern with peaks in Q4 and
dips in Q3.

RETAIL INDUSTRY REPORT | Q2 2017
Quarterly Visits Growth Since Q2 2015
• Consumer Electronics retailers
are gaining visits much faster
than apparel or the retail average.
• Overall retail visits are stagnant
and with only about 4% growth
in Q2 2017 compared to Q2 2016.

RETAIL INDUSTRY REPORT | Q2 2017
Visit Share by Device
• Smartphone visits are about to
overtake desktop in visit share for
the average retailer.
• This “Smartphone Moment” is going
to happen by the end of 2017 for
online retailers.
• Tablet visit share continues to
decline.

RETAIL INDUSTRY REPORT | Q2 2017
Revenue Share by Device
While visits on smartphones are
rising, revenue is still lagging
behind severely as desktop
remains the primary revenue driver
for most online retailers.

RETAIL INDUSTRY REPORT | Q2 2017
Device Visit Share by Segment (Q2 2017)
• Apparel retailers have
higher smartphone visit
share than the retail
industry average.
• Consumer Electronics
retailers are lagging
behind in terms of mobile
visits.

RETAIL INDUSTRY REPORT | Q2 2017
Revenue vs Visit Share by Device (Q2 2017)
While smartphone has gained a significant amount of visit share, it’s still a small a part of the revenue for
the average retailer.

RETAIL INDUSTRY REPORT | Q2 2017
Conversion Trend by Device
• The conversion trends for
mobile explain the lag in
mobile-driven revenue.
• Conversion is improving
across the board for retailers.
• The slight decline in visits
might indicate that retailers
have become more efficient
in their marketing efforts.
• Quality over quantity is the
key strategy.

RETAIL INDUSTRY REPORT | Q2 2017
Indexed Revenue per Visit by Device
• Decreased revenue and
conversion for smartphone
visitors is reflected in the
overall RPV.
• Every desktop visit is worth
about 4x as much as a
smartphone visit.

RETAIL INDUSTRY REPORT | Q2 2017
Stickiness by Device by Category (Q2 2017)
• The apparel retailers are the best at
enticing people to browse around their
website across all devices.
• The consumer electronics sector is
struggling with smartphone stickiness.
• YoY stickiness has not improved for
retailers. There was a 1% stickiness
decrease for tablet and smartphone.

RETAIL INDUSTRY REPORT | Q2 2017
Visit Duration Change YoY (Q2 2017)
• Overall visit duration is trending up for
Retail.
• However, visits to apparel online
retailers have become shorter.

RETAIL INDUSTRY REPORT | Q2 2017
Visit Share by Marketing Channel
• Social is still low in share.
However, it has more than
doubled in volume since Jan 2015.
• Paid Search is taking away from
Natural Search for Retailers.
• Email channel has been on a
downward trend over the past
two years, but this trend has
reversed recently.
• Paid Search peaks around the
holiday season taking away from
Natural Search.
*Share of tracked marketing channel traffic

RETAIL INDUSTRY REPORT | Q2 2017
Q2 Visit Share Growth by Marketing Channel
• While Social remains a small
part of the visit share, it has
experienced significant growth
in the last two years.
• Paid Search is also experiencing
significant growth.

RETAIL INDUSTRY REPORT | Q2 2017
Revenue Share by Hour By Marketing Channel
• Most channels align in terms
of revenue distribution by
hour.
• Social and Display are more
evenly distributed into the
late night.

RETAIL INDUSTRY REPORT | Q2 2017
Revenue Share by Hour: Email vs Others
The Email channel stands out as a
morning focused marketing channel.

RETAIL INDUSTRY REPORT | Q2 2017
Conversion by Time of Day by Marketing Channel
• While most revenue from the
Email channel comes during the
morning, late night seems to be
the time when a visit is most
likely to convert.
• Social and Display conversion
also seems to spike up after 11
pm, suggesting impulse
purchases.
• Both Paid and Organic Search
channels are less prone to the
impulse and peak in conversion
during the afternoon.

RETAIL INDUSTRY REPORT | Q2 2017
TAKE-AWAYS
1. While desktop is still the main driver of revenue, smartphone visits are crucial now.
Retailers should focus on converting their smartphone traffic.
2. Social is becoming essential. To be a successful online retailer you will need a strong
Social strategy to capitalize on this growing channel.
3. Visits from email campaigns see a higher conversion in the evening, suggesting that
people come back to their morning emails in the pm. Making this experience seamless
could give retailers an edge.
4. Late night Social and Display visits convert better. Don’t limit your ad schedule to the day
time, and instead take advantage of those impulse buys.

RETAIL INDUSTRY REPORT | Q2 2017
GLOSSARY
Metrics and Definitions
01 Average Visit Growth: trend in visits computed over two time periods averaged out across
the retailers sample.
02 Stickiness %: percentage of visits that last more than one page.
03 Marketing Channel: visits sourced from a marketing channel (as opposed to direct
traffic/entering the URL).
Industries
01 Retail: sale of consumer products to consumers online.
02 Apparel Retail: retailers focused on sale of apparel and accessories.
03 Consumer Electronics: retailers focused on sale of consumer electronics products.

RETAIL INDUSTRY REPORT | Q2 2017
METHODOLOGY
Visit our website: adobe.ly/AdobeInsights
Sign up for email alerts: http://www.cmo.com/adiregister.html
Follow us: @adobeinsights
Based on aggregate and anonymized consumer data comprised of over 50+ billion visits to over 250 retail websites between
January 2015 and June 2017 in the United States
The retail subsets analyzed include retailers focused on consumers electronics and ones focused on apparel and accessories.
Data from different Adobe Experience Cloud Solutions:
Adobe
Analytics Cloud
Adobe
Analytics

RETAIL INDUSTRY REPORT | Q2 2017
Tables: Visits Growth Trend
Avg Visit Trend
2015 Q1 0.0%
Q2 -6.2%
Q3 -5.7%
Q4 14.8%
2016 Q1 4.2%
Q2 0.5%
Q3 1.0%
Q4 21.7%
2017 Q1 6.3%
Q2 4.3%

RETAIL INDUSTRY REPORT | Q2 2017
Tables: Quarterly Visits Growth
Apparel Consumer Electronics All Retailers
Q2 2016 10.8% 16.8% 7.2%
Q2 2017 15.3% 34.5% 11.2%

RETAIL INDUSTRY REPORT | Q2 2017
Tables: Visit Share by Device
Desktop Smartphone Tablet
2015 Q1 58% 28% 14%
Q2 57% 30% 13%
Q3 55% 32% 13%
Q4 55% 33% 12%
2016 Q1 54% 34% 12%
Q2 53% 36% 11%
Q3 50% 39% 11%
Q4 49% 40% 11%
2017 Q1 49% 41% 10%
Q2 47% 43% 10%

RETAIL INDUSTRY REPORT | Q2 2017
Tables: Revenue Share by Device
Desktop Smartphone Tablet
2015 Q1 77% 10% 13%
Q2 77% 11% 12%
Q3 76% 12% 11%
Q4 75% 14% 11%
2016 Q1 73% 16% 11%
Q2 72% 17% 11%
Q3 71% 18% 11%
Q4 70% 19% 11%
2017 Q1 69% 21% 10%
Q2 69% 21% 10%

RETAIL INDUSTRY REPORT | Q2 2017
Tables: Device Visit Share by Segment
Desktop Smartphone Tablet
2016 All 53% 36% 11%
Apparel 46% 42% 12%
Consumer Electronics 62% 31% 7%
2017 All 48% 42% 10%
Apparel 40% 49% 11%
Consumer Electronics 56% 38% 6%

RETAIL INDUSTRY REPORT | Q2 2017
Tables: Conversion By Device
Total Desktop Smartphone Tablet
2015 Q1 2.4% 3.2% 0.9% 2.1%
Q2 2.5% 3.4% 1.0% 2.3%
Q3 2.5% 3.4% 1.0% 2.2%
Q4 2.9% 3.9% 1.3% 2.8%
2016 Q1 2.4% 3.2% 1.2% 2.4%
Q2 2.5% 3.4% 1.2% 2.5%
Q3 2.5% 3.5% 1.2% 2.5%
Q4 3.0% 4.3% 1.5% 3.1%
2017 Q1 2.6% 3.6% 1.3% 2.5%
Q2 2.7% 3.9% 1.4% 2.7%

RETAIL INDUSTRY REPORT | Q2 2017
Tables: Revenue Per Visit By Device
Desktop Smartphone Tablet
Indexed RPV 100% 28% 63%

RETAIL INDUSTRY REPORT | Q2 2017
Tables: Stickiness by Device by Category
Desktop Smartphone Tablet
2016 All 64% 56% 63%
Apparel 70% 61% 68%
Consumer Electronics 60% 48% 55%
2017 All 67% 56% 63%
Apparel 71% 60% 67%
Consumer Electronics 60% 45% 53%

RETAIL INDUSTRY REPORT | Q2 2017
Tables: Visit Duration Change
Retail Subcategory YoY change
All 1.2%
Consumer Electronics 2.2%
Apparel -2.2%

RETAIL INDUSTRY REPORT | Q2 2017
Tables: Visits Growth By Marketing Channel
Natural Search Display Email/Newsletter Paid Search Social Networks
Q2 2016 -4% -3% 3% 24% 51%
Q2 2017 -6% 7% 11% 45% 146%

RETAIL INDUSTRY REPORT | Q2 2017
Tables: Revenue Share By Hour
12am 1am 2am 3am 4am 5am 6am 7am 8am 9am 10am 11am 12pm 1pm 2pm 3pm 4pm 5pm 6pm 7pm 8pm 9pm 10pm 11pm
Email 2.3% 1.6% 1.2% 1.0% 1.1% 1.5% 2.4% 3.6% 4.9% 6.0% 6.8% 6.8% 6.6% 6.1% 5.8% 5.6% 5.3% 5.0% 4.9% 4.9% 4.8% 4.6% 4.0% 3.1%
Social 3.2% 2.4% 2.2% 2.0% 2.1% 2.4% 3.1% 3.8% 4.1% 4.8% 5.2% 5.2% 5.3% 5.4% 5.2% 5.0% 4.9% 4.8% 5.0% 5.1% 5.1% 5.0% 4.7% 4.0%
Display 2.6% 1.9% 1.8% 1.6% 1.8% 2.0% 2.6% 3.6% 4.7% 5.3% 5.5% 5.9% 5.7% 5.7% 5.7% 5.6% 5.3% 5.1% 4.8% 5.0% 4.9% 4.8% 4.4% 3.7%
Natural
Search 2.3% 1.6% 1.2% 1.0% 1.1% 1.5% 2.2% 3.1% 4.3% 5.3% 5.9% 6.2% 6.2% 6.2% 6.1% 5.9% 5.7% 5.4% 5.3% 5.3% 5.3% 5.0% 4.3% 3.3%
Paid
Search 2.3% 1.6% 1.1% 0.9% 1.0% 1.4% 2.0% 3.0% 4.1% 5.1% 5.8% 6.1% 6.3% 6.3% 6.3% 6.1% 5.8% 5.7% 5.5% 5.5% 5.4% 5.1% 4.3% 3.3%

RETAIL INDUSTRY REPORT | Q2 2017
Conversion By Hour - Table
12am 1am 2am 3am 4am 5am 6am 7am 8am 9am 10am 11am 12pm 1pm 2pm 3pm 4pm 5pm 6pm 7pm 8pm 9pm 10pm 11pm
Email 3.4% 3.2% 3.0% 2.6% 2.4% 2.3% 2.2% 2.3% 2.5% 2.7% 2.9% 3.0% 3.1% 3.1% 3.1% 3.0% 3.0% 3.0% 3.0% 3.1% 3.2% 3.3% 3.5% 3.6%
Social 1.4% 1.4% 1.5% 1.5% 1.4% 1.3% 1.3% 1.3% 1.3% 1.3% 1.4% 1.4% 1.3% 1.3% 1.3% 1.2% 1.2% 1.2% 1.2% 1.2% 1.2% 1.2% 1.2% 1.4%
Display 1.9% 2.0% 2.1% 2.1% 1.9% 1.7% 1.6% 1.6% 1.7% 1.7% 1.8% 1.9% 1.8% 1.8% 1.8% 1.7% 1.7% 1.7% 1.6% 1.6% 1.6% 1.6% 1.7% 1.9%
Natural
Search 1.7% 1.6% 1.5% 1.4% 1.4% 1.5% 1.6% 1.7% 1.8% 1.9% 2.0% 2.0% 2.0% 2.0% 2.0% 1.9% 1.9% 1.9% 1.9% 1.9% 1.9% 1.9% 1.9% 1.8%
Paid
Search 2.3% 2.3% 2.3% 2.2% 2.2% 2.2% 2.3% 2.4% 2.5% 2.6% 2.6% 2.6% 2.6% 2.6% 2.6% 2.5% 2.5% 2.5% 2.4% 2.4% 2.4% 2.4% 2.4% 2.4%