Dive Brief:

• The cost of gaining new mobile customers might be shrinking as a result of the continuing downfall of brick-and-mortar, according to research from Liftoff, a mobile app marketing firm in California. The ease of acquiring mobile customers is self-reinforcing as consumers become increasingly comfortable browsing and shopping on smartphones, contributing to the growth of mobile commerce and repeat purchases, according to the research made available to Mobile Marketer.
• The best month to target holiday shoppers is in September before the frenzy of promotions begins, the study found, and the average cost of converting a customer dropped 28% from a year earlier to $62.65. The study analyzed 26.9 billion ad impressions among 4.8 million app installs in the 12-month period ending in April.
• North American users are the least likely among people globally to register their name with a mobile app. But once they do, they are more than 2x more likely to move forward with a purchase, at an in-app purchase rate of 17.7%, Liftoff found.

Dive Insight:

The falling cost of acquiring mobile app users comes as consumers increasingly demand convenience and speed. Rather than going to a store, smartphone users can quickly browse and purchase with the tap of a finger from any location. Generally, mobile users are very attached to their devices, and as they grow more comfortable using them to make purchases, the more willing they become to make transactions in other apps, Liftoff found.

Mobile retailers that want to get a jump on Black Friday promotions and Cyber Monday should boost user acquisition efforts in September and re-engage customers in November and December as the most cost-effective way to drive sales, according to Liftoff.

The importance of getting the attention of smartphone customers was evident last year when mobile shopping eclipsed online desktop sales for the first time. Online sales reached $490 million on Black Friday, with mobile generating 57% of visits and a hearty 40% chunk of sales, according to Adobe Digital Insights. Total online sales for the month of November surged to $29.09 billion by the end of the popular holiday shopping day, showing 4.7% online sales growth for the period, Adobe adds. Online sales exceeded $1 billion on 23 of 24 days leading into Black Friday.