Trends on Tuesday: Mobile Shopping Increased for 2013 Holiday Shopping

Mobile shopping increased significantly this year for both Black Friday and Cyber Monday. But by how much? A lot says this report from IBM:

• Online Sales Set New Record: Thanksgiving Day online sales grew by 19.7 percent year-over-year followed by Black Friday, with sales increasing 19 percent over 2012. Average order value for Black Friday was $135.27, up 2.2 percent year-over-year.
• Top Five Cities for Online Shopping: New York City took the top spot for online sales on Black Friday. Rounding out the top five were Atlanta, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C. and Chicago.
• Mobile Shopping Soars: Mobile traffic grew to 39.7 percent of all online traffic, increasing by 34 percent over Black Friday 2012. Mobile sales were also strong, reaching 21.8 percent of total online sales, an increase of nearly 43 percent year-over-year.
• Smartphones Browse, Tablets Buy: Smartphones drove 24.9 percent of all online traffic on Black Friday compared to tablets at 14.2 percent, making it the browsing device of choice. Tablets drove 14.4 percent of all online sales, double that of smartphones, which accounted for 7.2 percent of all online sales. Tablet users also averaged 15 percent more per order than smartphone users, spending on average $132.75 versus $115.63 for smartphone users.
• iOS vs. Android: On average, iOS users spent $127.92 per order, compared to $105.20 per order for Android on Black Friday. iOS traffic reached 28.2 percent of all online traffic, compared to 11.4 percent for Android. iOS sales reached 18.1 percent of all online sales, compared to 3.5 percent for Android.
• Retailers “Push” Promotions to Mobile Shoppers: On average, retailers sent 37 percent more push notifications during the two day period of Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday – the alert messages and popup notifications from apps installed on your mobile device – when compared to daily averages over the past two months. Average daily retail app installations also grew by 23 percent using the same comparison. Retailers sent more notifications on Thanksgiving Day than Black Friday.

With these anytime, anywhere shopping habits becoming more common, agencies must become more acutely aware of their audience and their internet browsing habits, as well as their expected user experience. Agencies should consider how to provide a custom browsing experience for citizens in their mobile strategy.