A Window Into Desktop's Role in Fashion Transactions

Typically in fashion one day you are in and the next day you are out, but it's been a more gradual decline for desktop's place in the industry.

Affiliate Window recently released findings about the growth of fashion retailers within the U.S. market. Affiliate Window found that in Q4 2015, U.S. consumers are still most likely to purchase from a desktop computer (70 percent of transactions are conducted there), while this isn't true of customers purchasing from the UK and Ireland where less than half (45 percent) of transactions are conducted from desktop computers.

Further, Affiliate Window states that despite being less inclined to purchase via a mobile device than their UK counterparts, when they do, U.S. customers are spending considerably more. Average order values (AOVs) were $114 through mobile handsets (compared to $78.34 in the UK) and $124 through tablets (compared to $83.06 in the UK). U.S. customers are also spending considerably more through desktop and have the highest AOV of the top 10 countries the network tracked across all devices (click to zoom):

Are U.S. retailers seeing a future glimpse at how transactions will be conducted on their home turf? Probably. For starters, U.S. consumers are getting more comfortable buying (not just browsing) from their mobile devices (thanks to retailers embracing mobile best practices). Secondly, Internet orders make up a bigger portion of total retail sales in Britain, so the U.S. has some catching up to do in that regard. Once we do, retailers can count on connected Americans buying from their smartphones and expecting a flawless experience such as easy navigation, quick checkout process, mobile chat and more.