Mobile in the ascendency for Christmas shopping in 2012, with the iPad leading the charge, suggest IBM benchmark study

In its annual look at how UK consumers are shopping online in the run up to Christmas, IBM has found that use of mobile devices for both researching and buying continues to increase, with tablets in the ascendancy – the iPad alone accounted for 10.8% of online shopping, an increase of 205% over the same day in 2011.

According to the data, online sales increased by 18% compared to the same Monday in 2011, while the number of consumers using a mobile device to visit a retailer’s site reached 21.5%, up from 12% in 2011 on the same day. The number of consumers using their mobile device to make a purchase increased to 15.7%, up from 9.8% in 2011 on the same day
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The iPad generated more traffic than any other tablet or smart phone, reaching 10.8% of online shopping, an increase of 205% over 2011 on the same day (when it was 3.5%). This was followed by iPhone at 6.5% (from 4.9% in 2011) and Android 4.0% (from 3.3% last year).

Out of all tablets including Kindle, iPad generates the most online traffic at 95%.

In the UK, tablet traffic (53%) was higher than smartphone traffic (47%) in terms of consumers using those devices to visit a retailer’s site. Meanwhile US consumers display the opposite trend and more people use mobile phones to visit online retailers’ sites than tablets in the US.

Shoppers referred from social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube generated 0.22% of all online sales.