2025 State of Mobile: Retail Goes Global, But Growth Gets Complicated

The increasing digitization of the retail space has provided  participating brands with more and more tangible benefits. As mobile apps proliferate in virtually every area of commerce, consumers are exposed to a myriad of touchpoints — and opportunities to convert. 2024 saw a continuation of the industry’s rapid growth, with both downloads (6.6 billion) and hours spent in-app (41.9 billion) increasing globally for the fourth year in a row. State of Mobile 2025 explores the trends that defined the past year in retail, including global and regional growth patterns, emerging consumer preferences, and foreign disrupters in the form of Chinese e-tailers. 

If you want to skip straight to the report, download it here. Otherwise, here’s a sneak peek of the key findings — including actionable insights to help guide your decisions. 

Global App Downloads & Retail Media Insights: U.S. Declines, China Rises

Retail has officially gone global. With the stunning success of Chinese e-tailers like SHEIN and Temu (headquartered in the US but with a parent company in China), publishers must broaden their focus to stem the encroachment of foreign competition. Temu in particular has gained crucial ground in the past year; when treated as its own country, the company accounts for 8.3% of all global downloads. To put that in context, the United States as a whole contributes 11.9% of downloads — and that share has been steadily decreasing since 2021. 

While growth is being exhibited on a global scale, the US experienced declines: downloads decreased by 9.6% year-over-year (YoY) in 2024, while time spent dipped 4.5%. Consumers are no doubt reacting to inflation and tighter discretionary spending budgets, but this can also be seen as a natural correction following 2023’s explosive growth (+19% downloads, +17.5% time spent).    

Consumer Intelligence: What Drives App Downloads and In-App Conversions In 2025

General shopping apps like Amazon and Temu dominate the charts when it comes to popular global subgenres, trailed by apparel, coupons, and grocery categories. The shipping magnates’ supply chain advantage allows them to offer consumers key differentiators, namely low prices and top-notch fulfillment services (i.e. same-day delivery, free shipping). Another factor leading to high conversion rates for these brands is the ease of pre-loaded payment methods; lower barriers to purchase translate to lower cart abandonment rates.

Retail Media Insights Meet Mobile App Intelligence: Top Advertisers

Top retailers are taking advantage of every tool at their disposal, from retail media to mobile. Industry giants Walmart and Target lead in both sectors — and the dual strategy has paid off, as is evidenced by their impressive stats. Walmart boasted an average of around 20 million monthly active users (MAUs) on mobile, with 50 billion retail media impressions. Target, in the meantime, averaged 10 million MAUs and slightly over 25 billion impressions. 

Some brands lean more heavily on one tactic. For example, mobile-first food delivery companies — unsurprisingly — are bringing in more mobile downloads than traditional outlets. Conversely, traditional brick-and-mortars, such as pet stores, haven’t relied as much on mobile app adoption, instead choosing to embrace retail media. This largely untapped space presents an open opportunity for brands like Chewy to expand their share of voice (SOV) — before their competitors do.

Ultimately, the retail landscape is being shaped by mobile innovation, customers’ desire for convenience, and intensifying global competition. The brands that are succeeding in this environment tend to embrace omnichannel strategies, offer seamless, fast, and affordable experiences, and leverage app-based loyalty strategies to drive conversions. To stay competitive in 2025 and beyond, brands must prioritize mobile and retail media strategies, while remaining nimble in the face of global disruption. 

Dive into the full State of Mobile 2025 report to access insights you can’t find anywhere else — including 100+ pages of interactive, dynamic charts and exclusive data straight from the Sensor Tower platform.