When 70% of online traffic at Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is mobile, which it was Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday, you know something’s up.
If this past holiday weekend proved anything about e-retail, it proved that a great many consumers have become quite comfortable not just browsing and researching on their mobile devices, but buying on them. In fact, according to data provided exclusively to Internet Retailer from mobile commerce technology provider Branding Brand, one consumer on Saturday, the day after Black Friday, was feeling exceedingly comfortable, using their smartphone to purchase a diamond engagement ring…for $10,000.
“People are not at all afraid to drop major money shopping on mobile devices,” says Christina Koshzow, chief marketing officer and co-founder at Branding Brand, which also reports mobile sales by its retailer clients last weekend of a $7,500 HDTV, a $5,300 watch, a $4,300 riding lawnmower, a $3,800 7-piece dining room set, and a $2,800 log splitter. “A $10,000 engagement ring? Someone was caught up in the holiday magic—or drunk.”
Consumers last weekend were indeed intoxicated by mobile technology and how it can help them shop. In the history of Internet retailing, mobile commerce has never played a bigger role than it did last weekend, Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday. More consumers are spending more time with online retail on their smartphones and tablets than ever before, and more consumers are becoming more comfortable with completing purchases on the smallest of screens, smartphones—though smartphone screens are getting bigger and bigger, which is key.
37% of e-retail transactions from Black Friday through Cyber Monday were made on smartphones and tablets, finds anti-fraud technology vendor iovation Inc., which analyzed tens of millions of retail transactions processed by its fraud prevention systems. 44% of transactions the previous weekend, Nov. 22-23, stemmed from mobile devices, iovation finds.
“When we looked closer at the holiday data and other historical intelligence, it was clear that fewer people shop from mobile devices during the work week as they presumably make purchases from work computers, not personal phones and tablets,” says iovation’s vice president of product Scott Olson. “Any way you look at the data, it is clear that just like we experienced an e-commerce boom in the Internet’s early days, we are in the midst of an m-commerce explosion today.”
According to IBM Corp.’s Digital Analytics Benchmark, which tracks 800 U.S. retail web sites, 52.1% of e-retail traffic Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday was mobile, up almost 10 percentage points from 42.6% during the same period last year. And 32.3% of total web sales for the holiday weekend occurred on mobile devices, up almost seven percentage points from 25.8% last year, IBM says.
Apple Inc. iPhones and iPads continue to dominate mobile commerce, IBM finds. Apple devices accounted for 36% of retail site traffic while Android devices accounted for only 16%, and the average order value for purchases on Apple iOS devices was $118.57, $23 higher than the average order value for purchases on Android smartphones and tablets, IBM says. Shoppers on Apple devices accounted for more than 25% of all web sales, while shoppers on Android devices accounted for a comparatively paltry 7%, IBM finds.
Branding Brand tracked the mobile-optimized web sites of 108 of its retailer clients Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday. The group generated $10,700 in mobile sales every minute, Branding Brand says, racking up mobile sales of $77 million, 1,030,000 mobile orders and 36.6 million mobile visits. The smartphone average order value for the five-day period was $68.43 and the average smartphone conversion rate was 2.44%. The tablet average order value was $89.44 and the average tablet conversion rate was 4.59%.
And like IBM, Branding Brand’s holiday data show that Apple pounds Android, at least when it comes to shopping. For the five days, 71% of revenue, 66% of orders and 64% of visits were generated by iPhones and iPads, while 29% of revenue, 34% of orders and 36% of visits were generated by Android smartphones and tablets, Branding Brand says. Breaking up revenue from Apple mobile shoppers by version of the Apple mobile operating system, 57% stemmed from devices running the new iOS 8, 39% from iOS 7 and 4% from iOS 6, the vendor reports.
For a subset of 73 retailers that Branding Brand tracked both this year and last year on the Thanksgiving weekend, the vendor finds the following on these retailers’ mobile-optimized sites (excluding mobile apps):
- Smartphone visits increased 40%.
- Smartphone orders increased 55%.
- Smartphone revenue increased 52%.
- Tablet visits increased 21%.
- Tablet orders increased 46%.
- Tablet revenue increased 49%.
- Mobile visits (smartphone and tablet combined) increased 38%.
- Mobile orders increased 54%.
- Mobile revenue increased 51%.
Mobile commerce technology provider Moovweb Inc. reports 12 of its largest retailer clients on the Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday weekend saw mobile revenue jump 54%, mobile traffic rise 40% and mobile conversion rates increase 22%.
E-commerce and m-commerce technology provider Ecwid says 28% of web sales for its small business merchant clients on Black Friday came from mobile devices. Sales through smartphones accounted for 17% of web sales while sales through tablets accounted for 11%, Ecwid says. Mobile sales for Ecwid clients peaked last weekend on Thanksgiving and Black Friday at 34%.
“Online purchases made on a mobile phone have nearly doubled this Thanksgiving weekend versus last year’s Thanksgiving Weekend,” says Hayley A. Silver, vice president of Bizrate Insights, a division of Connexity Inc. (formerly Shopzilla), which did its own study of 4.8 million online transactions. “This increase in purchases via a mobile phone speaks not only to consumer demand, but also retailers’ ability to successfully meet consumers where and how they want to shop.”
When it came to mobile commerce last weekend, web-only retailer RueLaLa.com was cookin’ with gas. Normally mobile accounts for a mere 50% of web sales at the flash-sale apparel retailer; last weekend, 68% of web sales were mobile, the merchant says.
“Since last holiday season, our technology team has been hard at work enhancing our app to eliminate the friction and make the mobile shopping experience seamless and fun,” says Arash Hadipanah, senior mobile product manager at RueLaLa.com and one of the Internet Retailer Top 10 Mobile Commerce Chiefs. “We’ve added amazing features like our credit card scanner, responsive design and screen sharing. Our customers really responded—they were purchasing everything from $29 charms to $10,000 diamond bracelets on mobile.”
Since, as a flash-sale retailer, RueLaLa.com offers Black Friday and Cyber Monday-type sales 365 days a year, the merchant upped the ante for the holiday shopping season. It ran a campaign called the 12 Gift Steals, an expansion of a similar program from 2013 that ran for just two days but was a big hit with customers, Hadipanah says.
“This year we started the shopping early, on Monday Nov. 24, and then offered subsequent sales on Tuesday, Friday, Saturday and Cyber Monday,” he explains. “Every day at 8 a.m. Eastern time, we showcased 12 hand-picked gift items at amazing prices for just 24 hours. The 12 Gift Steals series encouraged customers to visit every day to ensure they were able to grab the perfect gift.”
Follow Bill Siwicki, editor of the 2015 Internet Retailer Mobile 500 and managing editor, mobile commerce, at Internet Retailer, at @IRmcommerce.
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