The shift toward use of smartphones among unique visitors to the Boat Trader website continued during the last 12 months.
Based on data we first reported in the DataTracker series a year ago and extended over the last four more quarters in the accompanying graphic, we see evidence of the same underlying trend, now closing in on 50 percent of all traffic.
Every year smartphones were used more to reach Boat Trader during the boating season, the second and third quarters, than in the colder first and fourth quarters. Tablet usage peaked, on a percentage basis, in 2014 and has gradually declined from 18 to 15 percent as phones grew in size.
Overall traffic to Boat Trader has increased, quarter over quarter, on a consistent basis, so the decline in actual desktop traffic has been modest, and on tablets, it has been even less significant. As an example, 2017 first-quarter traffic rose from 5.1 million to 5.5 million.
The decline in desktop traffic was from 2.3 million to 2.2 million, and tablet traffic from 850,000 to 825,000. Smartphone traffic increased from 2 million to 2.5 million during the same period.
This article originally appeared in the June 2017 issue.
