The Device Paradox: Why So Much of Your Traffic Is Window Shopping

Numbers Don’t Lie, But They Sure Are Confusing

The trend lines have spoken: mobile devices are dominating the internet. If you take a peek at your Google Analytics account, odds are over half of your visitors are coming in on a smartphone. For our clients, about 54% of all site traffic was mobile in the last year.

Here’s where the paradox kicks in: looking at the revenue generated, the pattern inverts. The data indicates that when it comes time to make the gift, most people prefer to use a desktop computer. Looking at our clients again, an average of 71% of online revenue was attributed to people coming to the site on a desktop.

So...What is going on? There are more mobile visitors coming to our sites than ever before, but they refuse to complete the journey on the device that is practically glued to their hand? It’s very likely a problem that points to a common behavioral preference. Taking this into account, we must shift our mental model of the digital ecosystem:

The mobile device is the scout, but the desktop is the command center.

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Counter-Intuitive Discovery: Phones Are Better for Browsing Than Buying

Think about where you use your phone. It’s your ever-present companion. It’s with you on the sofa while you watch a connected TV advertisement, in your hand while you sort the day’s mail, or maybe resting on the kitchen counter while you catch up on emails.

Phones are often used in a distraction-dense environment. This context is the key to the paradox.

A mobile experience is primed to support inspiration and discovery. When a donor sees an inspiring ad or reads a compelling email, their immediate impulse is to click and learn more. They are on a quick, spontaneous mission. A mission just as likely to be interrupted by their surroundings as it is by something on the phone itself! Push notifications abound, just begging for the donor to stop engaging with your site and take their next chess move, see who liked their recent Instagram post, or check out the most popular NYT recipe of the week.

This state of affairs means that the act of giving, a financial transaction that requires focus, card numbers, and a feeling of security, often requires a shift in context. The donor is most likely in a multi-tasking, high-distraction environment. They may not be ready to pull out their wallet and commit to a complex form flow while wrestling with the army of distractions around them. The desktop is where they sit down, put on their “serious hat,” and complete the commitment with intent.

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Bridging the Gap: UX and Retargeting Working Together

How can we maximize the value of this huge segment of incoming traffic? The answer is a two-pronged strategy focusing on making the checkout flow as frictionless as possible while ensuring that you intentionally follow up with visitors that leave.

1. Eliminate Mobile Friction (The UX Solution)

Your mobile form could very well be putting extra hurdles in the way of the potential donor. We have to assume they are highly motivated, since they clicked through to your donation page, but deeply distracted. Therefore, your mobile-first design philosophy must be built around the reduction of friction through speed, trust, and clarity.

Low hanging fruit: add express checkout options. Google Pay, Apple Pay, PayPal, Venmo, etc. all facilitate a quick and easy checkout by:

• Removing the need to find a wallet: The user’s details are already saved and authenticated by their device. No more lost sessions because someone had to go get their credit card and got distracted on their way.
• Providing instant trust: These are globally recognized, secure platforms. The thought “will my payment information be leaked or compromised?” doesn’t even cross their mind.
• Requiring just one tap: The donor moves from decision to confirmation in seconds.

Without these options available, you are relying on their browser-based auto-fill functionality to expedite their experience. Which is unreliable at best: multiple saved addresses, incomplete form filling, and other frustrating quirks are all too common. These little bits of extra friction may just be the straw that breaks the camel’s back, causing a session abandonment. 

Another huge source of friction is confusion. If they can’t understand quickly what good your organization brings about in the world, the odds of them abandoning the session skyrocket. Assume they’ll have the thought: “Ok I give you $20, what happens next?” 

Answering this question clearly on your page ensures they have the information they need to decide if your mission aligns with their values and desires or not.

By making the conversion process as frictionless and comfortable as possible, you drastically increase the odds that a mobile browser converts in that moment, even if they are distracted.

2. Find and Remind (The Behavioral Solution)

You’ve streamlined and optimized your mobile donation experience, but people are still abandoning their session. What now? 

When they leave, you cannot treat them as a lost cause. They showed high intent by clicking through to the form. They just weren’t in the right context to complete the gift! It’s true that some of these visitors might have decided that your organization is not for them. However, many more might just need a different set of circumstances to donate.

This is where retargeting becomes your most valuable tool.

A potential donor who browsed your page on mobile should be targeted with ads that remind them of their unfinished journey. Your retargeting campaign should be designed to:

1. Find them on desktop: Serve a simple, compelling display ad when they eventually sit down at their computer. The context is now more conducive to completing the donation process.
2. Re-engage them on mobile, later: Sometimes people just need to be exposed to your messaging multiple times before they are ready to give. We’ve seen some people look at ads for a year or more before giving their first gift! Keep asking as long as they keep engaging.

The retargeting ad itself shouldn’t necessarily be a hard sell; it should simply reintroduce the opportunity and link directly back to the easy-to-use form that is optimized for express payment.

Final Thoughts: Designing for Dual Intent

The Device Paradox is less of a mystery and more of a workflow challenge. The mobile device facilitates the impulse; the desktop facilitates the transaction.

The organizations that win the future of giving are those who design their experience for both contexts: a low-friction, high-trust, hyper-clear experience for the impulsive mobile user, and an effective retargeting system to guide the distracted mobile user back to the desktop command center for successful completion.

Don’t let that 54% of traffic be just window shopping. Take a look at your donation flow this week and ask yourself: “Have we lowered the barrier to entry for mobile gifts, and do we have a safety net in place to capture those who got distracted?”