Online shopping in the US through mobile devices was up 9% this year, and iOS led Android throughout the Thanksgiving and Black Friday shopping period, according to new research. The data comes from the Digital Analytics Benchmark Group at IBM, which is a platform that tracks millions of transactions and analyzes terabytes of data from […]
Online shopping in the US through mobile devices was up 9% this year, and iOS led Android throughout the Thanksgiving and Black Friday shopping period, according to new research.
The data comes from the Digital Analytics Benchmark Group at IBM, which is a platform that tracks millions of transactions and analyzes terabytes of data from over 800 online retailers in the U.S.
The report revealed that use of mobile devices for online shopping was up 9 percent this year, and that mobile devices now generate over 37 percent of all online shopping traffic as well as 21 percent of online sales. Even though tablet users placed 1.5x more sales, at least twice as much traffic was driven by smartphones.
Out of the 37 percent online shopping traffic generated by mobile devices during the Thanksgiving and Black Friday weekend, iOS accounted for 80 percent of the traffic as well as 17.3 percent for all sales. Android devices only accounted for 3.75 percent of all sales generated. The report also revealed that iOS users spent more per order, nearly 18 percent on average, roughly $131.34 versus $111.35 on Android.
iOS devices also generated more than 26 percent of all overall mobile traffic during this period as opposed to 11 percent generated by Android. Other platforms such as BlackBerry and Windows Phone are not represented because they didn’t generated enough activity.
Highlights from Black Friday 2013:
• Online Sales Set New Record: Thanksgiving Day online sales grew by 19.7 percent year-over-year followed by Black Friday, with sales increasing 19 percent over 2012. Average order value for Black Friday was $135.27, up 2.2 percent year-over-year.
• Top Five Cities for Online Shopping: New York City took the top spot for online sales on Black Friday. Rounding out the top five were Atlanta, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C. and Chicago.
• Mobile Shopping Soars: Mobile traffic grew to 39.7 percent of all online traffic, increasing by 34 percent over Black Friday 2012. Mobile sales were also strong, reaching 21.8 percent of total online sales, an increase of nearly 43 percent year-over-year.
• Smartphones Browse, Tablets Buy: Smartphones drove 24.9 percent of all online traffic on Black Friday compared to tablets at 14.2 percent, making it the browsing device of choice. Tablets drove 14.4 percent of all online sales, double that of smartphones, which accounted for 7.2 percent of all online sales. Tablet users also averaged 15 percent more per order than smartphone users, spending on average $132.75 versus $115.63 for smartphone users.
• iOS vs. Android: On average, iOS users spent $127.92 per order, compared to $105.20 per order for Android on Black Friday. iOS traffic reached 28.2 percent of all online traffic, compared to 11.4 percent for Android. iOS sales reached 18.1 percent of all online sales, compared to 3.5 percent for Android.
• Retailers “Push” Promotions to Mobile Shoppers: On average, retailers sent 37 percent more push notifications during the two day period of Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday – the alert messages and popup notifications from apps installed on your mobile device – when compared to daily averages over the past two months. Average daily retail app installations also grew by 23 percent using the same comparison. Retailers sent more notifications on Thanksgiving Day than Black Friday.
• The Social Influence – Facebook vs. Pinterest: On average, holiday shoppers referred from Pinterest on Black Friday spent 77 percent more per order than shoppers referred from Facebook. Facebook average order value was $52.30 versus Pinterest average order value which was $92.51. However, Facebook referrals converted sales at nearly four times the rate of Pinterest.
Read the full report here
