As Christmas looms, the first of the ‘Domesdays’ in the run up to the festival of consumption –Monday 25 November (Manic Monday?) – is showing every indication that we are indeed in for a mobile yuletide. Benchmarking by IBM has shown that more and more people are not only going on line to complete their Christmas shopping, but that they are doing so on mobile.
According to the IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark mobile traffic grew to 42.2% of all online traffic, an increase of 68% over 2012. Sales completed via mobile devices were also strong, growing 81.5 percent year over year, and exceeding 31 percent of total online sales – an increase of sales via mobiles of 80 percent year on year for the month of October, reported by IBM last week, already pointing to this trend.
While smartphone traffic accounted for 22.3 percent of all online traffic versus tablets at 20%, when it came to making actual purchases, tablet users drove 19.4% of online sales, which was 56 percent higher than that of smartphones users, who drove 12.4% – pointing to the importance for retailers of delivering a seamless and consistent shopping experience across different formats.
iOS traffic generated 30.7% of all online traffic and 24.6 percent of all online sales while Android generated 10.8% of all online traffic and 6.7 percent of all online sales.
Socially, IBM also uncovered that shoppers referred from Facebook averaged £59.39 per order versus £ 36.50 per order for Pinterest referrals. In addition, Facebook referrals converted sales at two times the rate of Pinterest referrals.
Expect more following 2 December – the hottest day in e-commerce.
