IBM Benchmark has released their initial online retail sales numbers for Christmas day, reports Forbes, and you might be surprised at just how big of a bite mobile devices took this year.
The iPad accounted for 7% of all online sales on Christmas Day—meaning that 7% of all purchases made online December 25th were made from an iPad. The iPhone accounted for 6.4% of all online sales.
That’s a 13.4% cut for iOS devices alone, and when you add in Android’s 5% cut, and the nominal cut seen from other smartphones, that means nearly a fifth of all online shopping on Christmas day was done from a mobile device.
IBM Smart Commerce strategy officer John Squire expressed his surprise at the growth of mobile commerce this holiday season:
The iPad wasn’t even around two years ago and now it’s the leading mobile device for purchases. Android came out from nowhere last year, and now it is in third place.
Also worth noting as that these figures don’t figure in any of the music or apps that were purchased, which is especially significant considering that iOS and Android set an all-time record for apps downloaded on Christmas this year.
The report also notes that online spending as a whole was also significantly up this year, and wraps up by providing the following summary of online sales data:
- Online sales grew by 16.4 percent over Christmas Day 2010
- 18.3 percent of all online sessions on a retailer’s site were initiated from a mobile device, up from 8.4 percent on Christmas Day 2010—an increase of 117.8 percent
- Sales from mobile devices reached 14.4 percent versus 5.3 percent on Christmas Day 2010—an increase of 172.9 percent.
There’s no doubt about it – online shopping isn’t going anywhere, and with mobile devices becoming more and more popular, they’re also becoming increasingly bigger targets for online merchants.
