Your analytics show a 2.8% overall conversion rate. Looks decent, right? But here's what's actually happening: 65% of your traffic is mobile converting at 1.4%, while 35% on desktop converts at 5.2%. Your desktop minority is carrying the entire business.
We've run over 4,000 A/B tests across 250+ European DTC brands. Same story everywhere: mobile lags desktop by 40-60%, and most brands are fixing the wrong things.
The problem isn't "distracted users" or "small screens." It's friction at every step.
Industry Baseline:
| Metric | Desktop | Mobile |
|---|---|---|
| Traffic Share | 35% | 65% |
| Avg. Conversion Rate | 4.8% | 1.9% |
| Cart Abandonment | 68% | 84% |
| Avg. Session Duration | 4m 32s | 2m 18s |
Do the math. At €1M annually, you're losing €400K-€600K to preventable friction.
Our test database shows three friction layers killing mobile conversion:
Load Time Fragility
Desktop users wait 3-4 seconds. Mobile users bail at 2.5 seconds. Not because they're impatient, but because mobile networks are unreliable. Your site loads in 2.1 seconds on WiFi? Try 8.3 seconds on 4G with packet loss.
Viewport Reflow
We've tracked 847 sessions where users tapped a CTA within 3 seconds, then the layout shifted as images loaded. The tap registered on the wrong element. They never came back. Your analytics called it a "bounce."
Form Input Hell
Mobile keyboards cover 40% of the screen. Users tap an input field and can't see what they're typing. Autofill breaks because fields aren't properly marked up. Safari's address bar randomly shifts everything 60 pixels mid-checkout. All of this causes abandonment.
You have 1920px horizontally on desktop. You have 375px on mobile. You're not adapting your design, you're destroying it.
Tap Target Problem
Apple says 44x44pt minimum. Android says 48x48dp. Our heatmaps show 34% of failed checkouts involve users repeatedly tapping 32x32px elements. They think your site is broken. It's not broken, it's just hostile to fingers.