According to a report from Hitwise, nearly 60 percent of all Online Searches are now carried out on a mobile device, with some sectors (Food and Beverage) reaching 72 percent.
Hitwise analyzed hundreds of millions of online search queries across multiple devices, including 3.5 million smartphones and tablets, between April 10 and May 7, 2016, and included searches across all search engines.
Hitwise found that 72 percent of all searches to a food and beverage website were done using a mobile device, while just 39 percent of banking searches came from a mobile device.
Here are the full results:
| Industry | Share of Mobile Searches |
|---|---|
| Food and Beverage | 72 percent |
| Health | 68 percent |
| Sports | 68 percent |
| News and Media | 64 percent |
| Lifestyle | 62 percent |
| Automotive | 62 percent |
| Retail | 56 percent |
| Travel (non-maps) | 52 percent |
| Real estate / Property | 48 percent |
| Entertainment | 42 percent |
| Banking | 39 percent |
According to the findings, mobile searches serve a more significant role in answering consumers’ questions earlier on the purchase journey, with navigational or brand-specific searches still more likely to be conducted from a desktop.
On the other hand, location-based searches (i.e., “near me”) are almost exclusively carried out on mobile.
Other takeaways from the report include:
- Mobile searches are more likely to be structured in the form of a question. They might include words such as “how”, “are”, “where”, and “is”.
- Breaking news, medical symptoms, and product recalls are heavily tilted toward mobile users.
- While large purchases may start with mobile searches, there is a clear transition to desktop searches as users carry out more intense research or conduct the actual transaction.
- In what seems to fly in the face of logic, mobile searches tend to be slightly longer (character length) than desktop. For example, the average desktop search that resulted in a visit to a Food & Beverage website is 2.2 words or 13.8 characters, whereas a mobile search was 2.5 words or 15.5 characters in length.
You should note that this data is from 2016 when the mobile market share was just 45.9%. The mobile market share in 2022 is now 59.47%. As such, I wouldn’t be surprised if the percentage of searches performed on mobile devices is significantly greater than 60%.
The report further breaks down the main industries, which I will summarize next.
Retail Search Statistics
Percentage of searches initiated on mobile with the following retail search themes:
| Theme | Percentage | Takeaway |
|---|---|---|
| 24 hours | 82 percent | Mobile shoppers want to find out which shops are open. |
| Engagement Rings | 82 percent | Top secret purchases like engagement rings are more likely to be carried out on a mobile. |
| Reviews | 82 percent | Shoppers seek information such as in-store reviews. |
| Layaway | 89 percent | Poor consumers may only have a mobile device to connect to the internet. |
| Return Policy | 77 percent | Counteract buyer’s remorse by making information easy to find. |
| Coupon | 77 percent | Consumers can be persuaded even after entering the store. |
Banking and Finance Search Statistics
Percentage of searches initiated on mobile with the following retail search themes:
| Theme | Percentage | Takeaway |
|---|---|---|
| ATM | 84 percent | Consumers that require cash will search on their phones. |
| 30-year mortgage | 73 percent | Homebuyers will search on their phone for information |
| Payday Loan | 70 percent | Low-income consumers frequently use mobile devices. |
| Interest Rate | 65 percent | mobile is commonly used when shopping for the best interest rates or loans. |
| Car Loan | 58 percent | Less common on mobile than mortgage searches, but still dominant. |
| Credit Report | 38 percent | The later stages of big purchases are not so common on mobile devices. |
Travel Search Statistics
Percentage of searches initiated on mobile with the following retail search themes:
| Theme | Percentage | Takeaway |
|---|---|---|
| Wait time | 93 percent | Travelers turn to mobile to find estimated wait times of security queues, etc. |
| Places to eat | 88 percent | Tourists tend only to have mobile devices available to do searches. |
| Flights from | 66 percent | Travelers looking for a destination prefer to browse on mobile. |
| Flights to | 53 percent | Users tend to move to the desktop once a destination has been chosen. |
| Best time to visit | 79 percent | Early-stage travel planning is common on mobile devices. |
| Exchange rate | 34 percent | Financial topics tend to be researched more on desktops. |
Food and Beverage Search Statistics
Percentage of searches initiated on mobile with the following retail search themes:
| Theme | Percentage | Takeaway |
|---|---|---|
| Shots | 95 percent | The Bartender’s bible. |
| Is/Are…? | 88 percent | Is soy sauce vegan? Quick searches for answers are predominantly mobile. |
| How to… | 82 percent | Cooks looking for tips. |
| Ideas | 80 percent | Meal inspiration while shopping for food. |
| Recall | 80 percent | Food safety concerns can strike anytime. |
| Calories | 79 percent | Checking calories before eating. |
Other Mobile Search Statistics
In 2019, Google published a review of insights they discovered throughout 2019, based on data over the previous two years.
Here are the takeaways:
- Mobile image search - Mobile searches for “image search” has grown by over 60% as people increasingly turn to image search for ideas and inspiration. 50% of shoppers say images helped them decide what to buy, and 53% of online shoppers say that images inspired them to make a purchase.
- Mobile voice search - 27% of the global online population uses voice search on mobile.
- Mobile Podcast search - Mobile searches for podcasts has increased by over 80%.
- Mobile searchers require immediacy - “Best” + “right now” mobile queries have grown by over 125%. For example, “best online sales right now”, “best stocks to invest in right now”. Satisfying the searchers’ immediate needs is becoming more critical.
- Mobile geographical searches - Mobile searches for “store open near me” have grown by over 250%. For example, “grocery store open near me”.
- Traditional industries are catering to mobile users - Mobile searches for “grocery app” have grown by over 900%.
- Mobile automotive searches - Mobile searches for “best” + “car(s) / truck(s) / suv(s) have grown over 55%.
- Financial planning searches - Mobile searches related to financial planning have grown by 70%. Mobile searches for “high yield” have more than doubled, while searches for “best credit cards” have increased by over 70%.