Which converts for ecommerce better--mobile or tablet?

Mobile conversion rates are not as strong as tablet conversion rates according to a new report by Monetate, a cloud-based metrics platform. The study monitored traffic and purchases from Thanksgiving to ‘Cyber Monday’ and tracked bounce rates and ‘add to cart rates’ across the three platforms--websites, mobile and tablet ecommerce. The data focuses on visits from 12.5 million in 2010 and 15.5 million in 2011, and the random selection process of the report helps to prevent unintended bias.

The study showed that mobile eCommerce achieved a conversion rate of 2.3%, whereas desktop websites achieved a 5.4% conversion rate on average. Tablet-based eCommerce usage was an impressive 5%.

Despite the fact of this study that mobile is underperforming when placed in comparison against tablet and desktop ecommerce experiences, mobile is helping to dramatically change the world of online shopping through the entire buying cycle: discovery, research, branding, conversion and loyalty. The personalized and perpetual, on-the-go experience of mobile is becoming more entrenched in buyers lifestyles so the mobile revolution is still in it's infancy. Tablet is a new (hybrid) experience that may help influence and transform the desktop web development industry--helping to further personalize the experience of the web.