Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
With Black Friday results nearly in the books, the holiday-shopping season has officially started, though some observers argue it really began this year on Thanksgiving day itself with a flurry of mobile commerce.
Much of that commerce is being driven by users of Apple Inc. devices. Controlling by far the largest share of both mobile traffic and mobile sales on Thanksgiving day and well into Black Friday were tablets and smart phones running Apple’s operating system.
For the first time ever, mobile devices of all types accounted for better than half of online shopping traffic on Thanksgiving day, according to IBM Digital Analytics, which is reporting every few hours on online activity. Overall, consumer sales online were up 14.28% on the holiday compared to Thanksgiving 2013, with discounting and other promotions driving average order value down nearly 2% to $125.25, according to IBM.
The trend toward significantly higher online sales, with stronger mobile activity, continued on Friday. By 3 p.m. Eastern time, IBM reported online sales were up 8% over Black Friday last year. Mobile devices accounted for almost 46% of online traffic and 26% of online sales. Again, average order value for all online activity, including PCs, was down almost 2%, to $138.63.
While consumers are using smart phones to shop, they are using larger screens to buy. Phones accounted for one-third of Black Friday online traffic but just 12% of sales, according to IBM. Tablets racked up 14% of sales, with desktop PCs picking up the remaining 74%.
By far the preferred device so far comes from Apple. Devices running iOS accounted for 31.2% of online traffic, swamping Android usage, which stood at 14.3%. The difference in actual sales was even starker. Sales on Apple iPhones and tablets came to 20.1% of all online sales by 3 pm Friday, nearly four times the 5.7% logged by Android devices. Average order value on Apple devices was $128.87, 25% higher than on Android-driven models.
