While countless consumers opened their gifts on Christmas Day, many retailers celebrated the holiday with a boost in online sales. The IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark announced its Christmas Day online shopping trends, and the results bode well for retailers, as overall sales were up 16.5% over 2012. IBM’s Benchmark saw similar results at Thanksgiving.
Mobile traffic on Christmas Day accounted for 48% of all online retail traffic, which was up 28.3% compared to last year. Mobile sales were strong too—up 40% over 2012’s numbers to boast 29% of all online sales, according to the Benchmark. This appears to be a recurring theme for Retailers based on IBM’s data.
Mobile devices played a huge role in the sales spike—par for the course in this increasingly mobile age. Smartphones drove 28.5% of all online traffic, according to the Benchmark data, whereas tablets drove 18.1%. However, 19.4% of all online sales came via tablets, while smartphones accounted for 9.3%. Tablet users also averaged more per order than smartphone users: $95.61 versus $85.11.
With regards to operating systems and percentage of total online sales, according to IBM, iOS was more than five times higher than Android. The former drove 23% of online retail Christmas Day sales, and the latter 4.6%. In addition, iOS users spent $93.94 per order and accounted for 32.6% of overall traffic, while Android users coughed up only $48.10 per order and were 14.8% of overall traffic.
IBM also noted that shoppers referred from Facebook averaged $72.01 per order, whereas Pinterest referrals spent an average of $86.83 per order. Additionally, Facebook referrals converted sales at nearly four times the rate of Pinterest referrals, which IBM theorizes could indicate stronger confidence in recommendations made on the social network.
