IBM reports online sales were up 17% over the Black Friday weekend, with mobile traffic accounting for 51.2 percent of all online traffic. Apple’s iOS platform lead the way, as mobile sales accounted for 28.9% of all online sales over the four-day weekend.
Over the weekend, IBM continued to see strong mobile sales. Here are the key weekend trends reported by the IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark:
- Online sales were up 17 percent compared to the same weekend in 2013
- Mobile traffic accounted for 51.2 percent of all online traffic this past weekend, an increase of 25.5 percent YoY
- Mobile sales accounted for 28.9 percent of all online sales this past weekend, an increase of 24.9 percent YoY
Apple’s iOS platform once again led the way in mobile shopping this holiday season, leading Android across three key areas:
- Average Order Value: iOS users averaged $117.45 per order, while Android users spent $97.74, a difference of 20.2%.
- Online Traffic: iOS traffic accounted for 35.4% of total online traffic, more than double that of Android, which accounted for 15.4% of all online traffic
- Online Sales: Apple’s iOS sales accounted for 22.7% of all online sales, nearly four times that of Android, which grabbed 6% of all online sales.
Other weekend trends noticed by IBM:
- Consumers Are Looking for Online Bargains: The average online order value was $123.81, which was flat compared to the same period in 2013. Shoppers purchased an average of 3.4 items per order.
- Smartphones Browse, Tablets Buy: While smartphones drove 34.5% of total online traffic – more than double that of tablets, which accounted for 16.3% of all online traffic – tablets won the shopping war, as they accounted for 17.6% of online sales, compared to smartphones, which accounted for 11.2% of total online sales, a difference of 56.3%.
- The Desktop is Not Dead: Even as mobile shopping continues to grow, there is still life left in the desktop PC platform as a method of online shopping. Desktop PC traffic represented 48.6% of all online traffic, and 71.1% of all online sales. Consumers also loosened the purse strings a bit more when shopping on their desktops, with an average order value of $128.60 compared to their mobile devices at $112.81, a difference of 14%.
- Facebook vs. Pinterest: Social channels continue to drive brand loyalty and sales, as IBM analyzed trends across two leading sites, Facebook and Pinterest. Facebook referrals drove an average of $107.91 per order, while Pinterest referrals averaged $105.25 per order.
