Christmas 2012 sees record numbers shopping on mobile devices
A new report has shown that the Christmas 2012 online shopping season was the strongest ever with record numbers of people using mobile devices to shop.
Findings from the IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark: Christmas Retail Report reveal that the UK online retail sector delivered 16.4% sales growth in December 2012 compared to the same period last year, according to cloud-based analytics findings by IBM.
Boxing Day had the strongest percentage increase with sales up 45% on last year. IBM’s findings follow a strong November where online retail sales were up 13.7% on 2011.
The report shows that Monday 26 November was a big online shopping day, and the following two Mondays in December almost tied as the two largest online shopping day.
Mobile generated nearly a quarter of all traffic with 24.2% of all online sessions on a retailer’s site initiated from a mobile device in December. This hit a record high of 33.6% on Christmas Day.
Mobile sales represented over a fifth of all sales with sales from mobile devices up 20.3% in December, reaching almost 30% Christmas Day.
iPad traffic in November tripled year-on-year, growing more than 200%. This compares to Android traffic which rose 30.2% and iPhone traffic up 35.3% in the month.
Chris Withers, UK head of Smarter Commerce at IBM said: “The report suggests that this was the year of the iPad, not just as a device for shopping and browsing retail websites but also as the gift of choice on Christmas Day, when iPad traffic hit its peak at 17%. This provides another clear reminder to retailers of the need to optimise browsing experiences for mobile devices.”
A further IBM report has revealed the rise of showrooming – the practice of viewing items in shops then buying online. The survey of 26,000 shoppers found that nearly 50% of online purchases in studied categories resulted from showrooming. It also found that 35% of shoppers were considering options for buying through a variety of methods beyond just the shop in the near future – a potential quadruple jump from the 9% that were ready to buy online now.
