Online Sales Rose 8% Before Valentine’s Day

Content Manager

Online shopping saw a rise of 8% during the week of Valentine’s Day compared to the same period in 2013, according to recent data from IBM.

According to IBM, growth was strong in gifts (20%), apparel (17%) and health and beauty (15%) and department stores (34%.)

Mobile traffic accounted for 36.8% of all online traffic, it was up 39.6% compared to last year, according to IBM. Mobile sales also remained strong at 17.2% of all online sales, up 42.9% over 2013.

Smartphones drove 23.3% of all online traffic compared to tablets at 13.3%, making it the browsing device of choice, according to IBM. When it comes to the sale, tablets drove 11.4% of all online sales,  twice that of smartphones which accounted for 5.6%.

Tablet users also averaged $135.26 per order, versus smartphone users who averaged $114 per order, according to IBM.

When it came to the percentage of total online sales, iOS was more than four times higher than Android.  IOS drove 13.6%  in sales versus 3.4% for Android, according to IBM.  On average, iOS users spent $132.28 per order versus Android users who spent $110.54 per order.

IOS also led as a component of overall online traffic with 24.6%, nearly twice that of Android users at 11.9%, according to IBM.

When it came to the social influence, shoppers referred from Facebook averaged $125.24 per order, versus Pinterest referrals, which drove $147.74 per order, according to IBM. However, Facebook referrals converted sales at 3.5 times the rate of Pinterest referrals, indicating stronger confidence in network recommendations.