Dive Brief:

• Amazon, Walmart and Wish were the top three most downloaded shopping apps in the U.S. in 2020, according to a new report by Apptopia. Amazon saw 41 million downloads, Walmart 34 million and Wish 30 million. 
• Other retailers in top spots include eBay at 20 million, Shein at 19 million, Target at 16 million, Wayfair at 15.3 million and Nike landing the number ten spot with 15.1 million. 
• These results were slightly different than the top shopping apps globally, where Amazon again took the number one spot, Shopee came in second and Wish came in third for most downloaded shopping apps for the year, per the report. 

Dive Insight:

2020 was the year that e-commerce and mobile became vital shopping channels for retailers and the public. As nonessential retailers temporarily closed their doors in the spring, companies responded by pushing e-commerce strategies forward, boosting delivery options and fulfilling mobile orders.

A recent report from Sensor Tower showed how a reliance on mobile played out during the year, with the United States spending almost $130 million across both Google Play and the Apple App Store, leading global spending on mobile apps. 

The holidays in particular illustrated the increased willingness of consumers to shop via app. Shopping on smartphones jumped 25% to $3.6 billion on Black Friday, making up 40% of total online spending on that day, according to Adobe Analytics data. Additionally, consumers spent nearly $10.8 billion online on Cyber Monday, a 15.1% increase year over year. Mobile accounted for 37% of Cyber Monday sales, per Adobe. 

Apptopia's report states that, in the United States, only three retailers on the most downloaded shopping app list have physical locations — Walmart, Target and Nike. (Although Amazon does have a handful of brick-and-mortar stores like Amazon Books, Amazon 4-star, Amazon Go and Amazon Go Grocery locations.)