Mobile Accounts for 45% of Holiday Ecommerce Traffic

Content Manager

The holiday shopping season saw strong online and mobile sales.   Online sales were up 13.9% over the same period in 2013 and mobile traffic accounted for 45% of all online traffic for the holiday season, an increase of 25.5% year-over-year.

Mobile sales accounted for 22.6% of all online sales for the 2014 holiday season, an increase of 27.2% year-over-year, according to the IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark.

When it came to consumers cashing in on online bargains, the average order value was $119.33, a decrease of 8% over 2013, with shoppers purchasing an average of four items an order.

Smartphones drove 31.2% of total online traffic, nearly two and half times that of tablets, which accounted for 13.4% of all online traffic.  Tablets are winning the shopping war over smartphones, which accounted for 9.1% of total online sales, a difference of 47.3%.

As mobile shopping continues to grow; consumers chose a more traditional online experience.  Desktop PC traffic represents 54.8% of all online traffic, and 77.3% of online sales.  Consumers spent more money on their desktops with an average order value of $125.12 compared to mobile devices of $104.82, a difference of 19.4%.

Apple iOS led the way in mobile shopping this holiday season, outpacing Android across three key metrics including:  average order value, online traffic and sales.  Apple iOS users averaged $110.92 per order compared to $87.26 for Android users, a difference of 27.1%. Online traffic for Apple iOS accounted for 30.3% of total online traffic, more than double that of Android, which drove 14.3% of all online traffic. Online sales accounted for 17.6% of total online sales, nearly four times that of Android;  which drove 4.9% of all online sales.

When it comes to social media, marketers continue to rely on social channels to drive brand loyalty and sales, trends were analyzed across Facebook and Pinterest.  Facebook referrals drove an average of $101.38 per order, while Pinterest referrals averaged $105.75 per order.