IBM report: Mobile shopping doubled over December holidays

Cristina Blanaru Digital & Media, Mobile, Studies

Mobile shopping doubled over December holidays, mobile devices, including the iPad and iPhone helping driving strong online retail sales, according to IBM Benchmark.

U.S. online retail sector delivered 7.5 percent growth in December 2011 compared to the same period last year, according to IBM.

IBM Benchmark December holiday report revealed that consumer spendings generated an increase of 7.5% of online sales compared to 2010.

Also, from all the online sessions on retailers’ websites, 14.6% were initiated from mobile devices, more than double the rate of 5.6 percent over this same period in 2010. Also, the sales realized from mobile devices doubled, reaching 11%  versus 5.5%  in December 2010.

Among the mobile devices that drove the retail traffic, Apple’s iPhone and iPad ranked one and two (5.2% and 4.3%), while Android was third (4.1% percent). Shoppers using the iPad also continued to drive more retail purchases than any other device with conversion rates reaching 6.3% compared to 3.1% for all mobile devices.

This past December consumers remained committed to finding the best online deals whether through their PC or mobile device (…) By employing a smarter approach to commerce, many retailers were successful in helping to connect their customers with the best deals from anywhere and at any time, even on Christmas Day where online shopping grew by 16.4 % over 2010.

 John Squire

Chief Strategy Officer IBM Smarter Commerce

IBM’s Smarter Commerce initiative delivers software and services to help companies transform their business processes to more quickly respond to shifting customer demands in today’s digitally transformed marketplace. The initiative is driven by the demands from organizations who are increasingly looking for ways to bring new levels of automation to marketing, sales and fulfillment to secure greater customer loyalty. The growth of mobile, social and online commerce are key trends within Smarter Commerce.

These holiday season findings are based on data from IBM Benchmark, the only analytics-based, peer-level benchmarking solution that measures online marketing results, including real-time sales data from the web sites of more than 500 leading U.S. retailers. All of the data is aggregated and anonymous.