Monetate has announced the release of the latest Ecommerce Quarterly (EQ2 2013).

This quarter’s report examines the decreasing influence email marketing has on ecommerce, how tablets are overtaking smartphones in online retail, and social media’s impact on ecommerce.

The EQ includes over a dozen benchmark reports about consumer behaviour in the ecommerce space and a breakdown of online shopping behaviors by state.

Among the reports key insights:

-Email takes a dip. The EQ reveals that both referral traffic to ecommerce sites from email and conversion rates from email decreased since last year. Referral traffic dropped 37 per cent year-over-year, while the conversion rate slipped six per cent. However, average order value from email channels is up, $89.43 in Q2 2012 to $99.93 in Q2 2013, which suggests a great opportunity for brands who are able to create more engaging email experiences

-The rise of the tablet continues in mobile commerce. Traffic from mobile devices makes up 22.13 per cent of all ecommerce traffic, up from 15.2 per cent in Q2 2012. Tablet traffic continues to outpace smartphones, making up 12.44 per cent of all ecommerce traffic with smartphones at 9.69 per cent
-Social commerce shows promise in average order value. Social media traffic delivered a big year-over-year uptick in average order value, moving from $75.82 in Q2 2012 to $86.80 in Q2 2013. However, social still lags far behind search and email in traffic and conversion rates
This edition also introduces the Impact Score, a new way for digital marketers to measure the value of specific customer segments to their businesses. The metric can be particularly useful for new customer acquisition, as marketers can use the Impact Score to identify smaller customer segments that have high revenue potential, and use acquisition channels to effectively attract similar customers to the brand.
Blair Lyon, VP, marketing, at Monetate, said: "Finding your most valuable customer segments can be misleading when looking at them based on a single metric.
"With the Impact Score, a marketer can easily identify which segment will have the greatest impact on their business, then instantly take action to deliver a winning customer experience."