The Q2 2024 benchmarking report for UK second hand mobile phone resellers has just been published. Learn how the top 12 resellers perform across the digital space.
The latest Q2 2024 benchmarking report for UK second hand mobile and technology resellers has just been published. It covers the largest 12 resellers' websites in the UK, including Mazuma Mobile, musicMagpie, Tech Market, Mobiles.co.uk, Back Market, The iOutlet, Envirofone, Handtec, 4Gadgets, The Big Phone Store, Smart Cellular, and MTR Group.
The research gives an inside track on who is winning the biggest share of voice online, and quantifies the gaps, risks and missed opportunities for other second hand mobile phone resellers to win brand exposure, drive traffic online, and increase both orders and the acquistion of new stock. The report highlights quick wins that will improve enquiries from your online strategy and identifies the barriers that may be reducing your site’s ability to optimise digital performance.
To see a preview and contents page of the Q2 report, click here. To get a copy of the full report and the key takeaways, please complete the enquiry form or schedule a call.
Q2 2024 winners leader board
For a glance into just 6 of the metrics we evaluated these top 12 second hand mobile phone resellers on, check out our quick-look table below;
Continue reading for further detail on this quarter's best and poorest-performing UK second hand mobile phone resellers or request a copy of the report for the full review.
What The Industry Research Report Covers
The 70+ pages of research benchmarks each retailer based on 50+ metrics and indicators of successful digital strategy, including organic visibility, domain authority, paid media ads, conversion performance, technical performance, site speed, universal search, content, social ads, accessibility, and mobile performance.
Driving Optimal ROAS from Paid Media Channels
Some of the leading players in the space are high spenders on paid media channels such as Google, Bing & Facebook - but have a poor or sub-optimal conversion improvement strategy. Without an optimised, sophisticated conversion strategy that maximises the conversion rate, the return on investment is unsustainable or will under-perform. Scaling spend on paid media is not achievable unless the conversion rate delivers optimal performance in the sector. Some in the space have paid media spend levels from 30k+ per month but dedicate minimal resources and budgets to conversion testing. Given the cost per clicks on ad networks will continue to rise, we recommend spending at least 10% of your paid media budget on ongoing conversion optimisation testing schedules to ensure your paid media ROI maintains long term viability, competitive advantage, and sustainability.
Technical Website Compliance
Savvy digital marketers know that having a technically sound website is an essential component of a successful fully integrated digital strategy - plus a site capable of maximising conversion performance. Second hand mobile and technology resellers will want to ensure customers can find information on buy and sell rates for different models, along with details needed for postage and order tracking.
Site Speed & Conversion Rate Performance
When 62% of consumers are less likely to convert if they have a negative mobile site experience, ensuring that your site is quick and easy to load makes a significant improvement on your overall conversion rates. In a saturated market, second hand mobile phone sellers must ensure that both customers looking to buy and sell are getting a positive user experience from every touchpoint.
For Q2 2024, the mobile site speed ranged between 39 and 9, with no brands scoring at least the recommended 50%. However, Tech Market reported the slowest site speed. Its mobile website incorporates lots of large images, which it should optimise to ensure that media isn’t slowing down its website. Given that the majority of sites receive lower organic traffic on mobile devices, ensuring that their websites’ designs are mobile-friendly can help to increase site speed score.
Building Competitive Advantage with Domain Authority
Domain authority is an essential metric for measuring the effectiveness of SEO performance, and helps create a reliable overall gauge of how effective your site is at achieving organic traffic, i.e. ‘free’ traffic that isn’t gained through sponsored ads. Second hand mobile phone sites can look at exploring the environmental impact of using second hand technology, as an interesting central topic for a digital PR campaign.
A ‘good’ DA really comes down to how your competitors are performing, however it’s generally considered average between 40 and 50, good between 50 and 60, and excellent above 60. The DA for this quarter ranged between 71 and 7, with only 2 companies scoring above 60. However, Tech Market flagged the lowest DA rating. This second hand phone reseller also reported the fewest number of backlinks (845), which can affect a brand’s DA. Tech Market should adopt a PR strategy to increase backlinks from reputable sites.
Organic Performance – Mobile & Desktop
A strong organic performance is strategically important as it ensures your site ranks above competitors for key, transactional keywords. When 93% of your customers won’t go past the first page of Google, your absence or lack of targeting for essential keywords will cost you conversions. Second hand mobile phone resellers have an opportunity to gain organic traffic, due to an increase in interest in both buying and selling second hand mobiles, due to the cost of living crisis. Customers are likely to be looking for a more affordable way to purchase a handset, along with selling their older models to raise some extra cash.
Four resellers reported a loss in organic traffic for desktop and mobile, with Tech Market encountering the biggest loss (98% on desktop and 96% on mobile). All brands should ensure their websites are easy to navigate on mobile to help increase their traffic across both types of devices.
Universal Search Opportunity
Google Universal Search Results is an evolving opportunity to make your pages visible on a SERP (Search Engine Results Page). Universal results often appear before traditional listings and are eye-catching for users. Universal Search results refer to rankings on a SERP that are not the traditional ‘blue line’ Google link, and a site can appear for universal search results without being strong in standard rankings. Second hand mobile phone resellers will want to ensure they have a strong performance for 'reviews' results, ensuring that potential customers can feel confident in getting a good deal, from both buying and selling their old technology.
Four resellers reported a loss in organic traffic for desktop and mobile, with Tech Market encountering the biggest loss (98% on desktop and 96% on mobile). All brands should ensure their websites are easy to navigate on mobile to help increase their traffic across both types of devices.
The Longtail Keyword Opportunity
Longtail keywords are often considered high intent and potentially more likely to convert as a searcher is being more specific. Optimising for longtail keywords also puts your content strategy in a strong position to rank for retailer new search terms as they enter Google’s index. Second hand mobile phone resellers can optimise towards high purchase-intent phrases, such as 'fast delivery', 'payment plan', or even specific models.
musicMagpie reported the highest appearance for longtail keywords in positions 3 (3,076). It also reported the highest appearance of keywords in this position (3,668). Naturally, brands will rank higher for shorter keyphrases, as these are more time-efficient for consumers to type into search engines. MTR Group reported the fewest longtail keyhrases, and it should incorporate more popular longtail keyphrases to increase its results.
Facebook Adverts
With the number of Facebook users in the United Kingdom (UK) hitting over 44 million users in 2023, it is not surprising that companies have jumped at the opportunity to advertise on the social media platform. Facebook’s UK digital advertising revenue has been estimated to have breached 2.6b GB pounds in 2019.
We’ve included three examples of Mobiles.co.uk’s sponsored Facebook posts. All of its posts feature very similar text, promoting the same product. It should experiment with different phrasing to assess which verbiage receives the highest amount of traction.
Top Social Shares & Content
When it comes to social media and on-site content strategies, it is important to release content that has a longer shelf life. An article is considered 'Evergreen' if it has maintained its relevancy to an audience for longer. It's great for your brand engagement, but great for Google too, who will recognise content which achieves traffic over a long period of time. Second hand mobile phone resellers can create shareable social content that details cost saving, environmental impact, and other key benefits of using a second hand mobile phone.
Most of the brands favoured Facebook, and Back Market has the largest Facebook page (454,700 Likes) and Instagram page (23,900 followers). Brands can increase their social media following by running competitions to help with online exposure.
Website Readability & Accessibility
20% of people in the UK have a disability – 2 million of which are people living with sight loss. In addition, 1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women have some degree of colour vision deficiency. When websites are not designed to meet these needs, retailers lose customer interest as they turn elsewhere. Sites which have large volumes of products, with different models that may only differ slightly in their specifications, must ensure that information is presented as clearly as possible, to improve accessibility.
In our last audit, musicMagie flagged 581 accessibility alerts, which it’s slightly decreased to 527 in Q2 2024. Smart Cellular reported 153 alerts, with the majority of these coming from redundant links. Brands should reduce their accessibility alerts to help improve visibility for those using a screen reader.
Get the full 70-page Q2 2024 report
To get a copy of the full report, please complete the enquiry form. If you want to talk to us about accelerating your digital performance, please call us on 01543 410014 or schedule a call with Mike Movassaghi.
Photo by Eirik Solheim on Unsplash
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