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Criteo’s Q2 2018 Global Commerce Review Points to Continued Worldwide Growth of In-App Transactions

Findings Underscore the Importance Retailers Must Place on App Promotion to Drive Awareness and Adoption Ahead of the Critical Holiday Season

NEW YORK—September 20, 2018—Criteo S.A. (NASDAQ: CRTO), the advertising platform for the open Internet, today released its second Global Commerce Review of the year with data gathered during the second quarter of 2018. The report analyzed browsing and purchasing data from over 5,000 retailers in more than 80 countries and found that shoppers continue to embrace mobile web and smartphone app technology for purchases, especially among pure-play online retailers.

“Retailers around the world are continuing to see shopper preferences shift as they become more reliant on the convenience and personalization that in-app commerce experiences can offer,” said Jonathan Opdyke, Chief Strategy Officer, Criteo. “Yet as in-app sales rise, it’s imperative for retailers to understand that simply launching an app does not necessarily mean that it is going to yield immediate returns. Our Q2 Global Commerce Review found a strong correlation between in-app transaction growth and retailers that develop and commit to an ongoing shopping app promotion strategy.”

The top three key takeaways from Criteo’s Q2 Global Commerce Review include:

  • Transactions completed on mobile web, and especially on smartphone, continue to rise in most countries and regions.
  • The share of app transactions for advertisers who promote their shopping app steadily increases over time.
  • Retailers with a brick-and-mortar presence, on average, tend to fall behind their online-only competitors when it comes to capturing in-app demand.

The Q2 Global Commerce Review serves as a powerful benchmarking tool for marketers as they navigate shopper behaviors across desktop, mobile web and apps. To further enhance how the second quarter data can be turned into actionable insights in advance of the holiday shopping season, Criteo has also launched its Seasonal Sales Dashboard. The free online tool empowers retailers to analyze how shoppers behaved globally during the 2017 holiday push. The interactive tool is powered by 1 billion transactions from 2,500 retailers in 16 countries. Users can drill down into the data set and sort by country, retail category and date ranges between November 1, 2017 and December 31, 2017, accessing insights into trends across the entire 2017 Holiday season.

“With just over 100 shopping days until Christmas, retailers need to understand the nuanced browsing and purchasing patterns of their primary customers on mobile in order to market mobile web and in-app experiences that will truly move the needle later this year, especially on Black Friday and Cyber Monday,” said Jaysen Gillespie, Vice President and Head of Analytics and Data Science, Criteo. “We are confident that marketers will benefit from Criteo’s Seasonal Sales Dashboard given the granularity of the data and the lead time they still have to adjust mobile strategies before the shopping season truly gets started.”

Additional Q2 Global Commerce Review research highlights:

  • Mobile Continues to Rise
    • In many countries, particularly Northern Europe and Japan, mobile transactions now represent more than 50 percent of online transactions.
    • APAC has been a clear leader in mobile transactions (51 percent) but all other regions continue to catch up, including Europe (now 44 percent) and the Middle East & Africa (47percent).
  • Shopping App Success Hinges on Smart Promotion
    • Globally, mobile dominates among retailers that promote their shopping apps. Criteo tracked a 30 percent year-over-year increase in the share of in-app transactions among
      these retailers.
    • For clients who promote their shopping apps, APAC reports the highest share of transactions from those apps, followed by just over one-quarter in Europe and 18 percent in the Americas.
    • Retailers that have or are considering a shopping app have good reason to invest in promotion—in North America, the conversion rate on shopping apps is more than three times higher than on mobile web.

 Online-Only Retailers Continue to Outpace Traditional Retailers (When Both Promote Shopping Apps)

    • For online-only retailers who promote their app, a full 31 percent of transactions come from the in-app purchase channel.
    • Brick-and-mortar retailers that promote a shopping app see fewer in-app transactions (21percent) compared to pure online players, highlighting the opportunity for these retailers to further integrate app technology into shoppers’ experience before, during and after they visit a physical store.

For a complete look at the Global Commerce Review, view the report at https://www.criteo.com/insights/global-commerce-review-united-states-q2-2018/

Q2 Global Commerce Review Methodology

The Global Commerce Review analyzed individual browsing and purchasing data from over 5,000 retailers, in more than 80 countries, during the second quarter of 2018.

Criteo Seasonal Sales Dashboard Methodology

The dashboard analyzes daily traffic and sales data from more than 2,500 retail advertisers in 16 countries, accounting for more than 1 billion transactions in the fourth quarter of 2017. The most granular data points are always backed by verified data from at least 10 retailers. Indexed traffic and sales data is compared to average in October 2017. Share of traffic and sales by device does not include applications.

Interactive Global Map

To view an interactive world map featuring a global snapshot of aggregate regional data, please visit: https://www.criteo.com/insights/global-commerce-review-map/