IBM online retail survey shows healthy m-commerce growth on Cyber Monday

"Retailers that adopted a smarter approach to commerce, one that allowed them to swiftly adjust to the shifting shopping habits of their customers, whether in-store, online or via their mobile device, were able to fully benefit from this day and the entire holiday weekend," Squire said.

Cyber Monday becoming more mobile

According to IBM's report, growth in overall online spending for Cyber Monday this year was up a very strong 33 percent over Cyber Monday 2010. Additionally, the average sale increased 2.6 percent, from $193.24 to $198.25.

As far as mobile shopping, IBM's report showed 10.8 percent of people used a mobile device to visit a retailer's site on Cyber Monday, an increase of 3.9 percent versus last year's Cyber Monday. Those visits translated into 6.6 percent of all online sales being made on a mobile device. That may seem like a small percentage, but it's an increase from only 2.3 percent on Cyber Monday 2010.

That's actually a decrease in mobile traffic from this year's Black Friday when 14.3 percent of online shopping was conducted on a mobile device and 9.8 percent of online sales were made via a mobile device.

Apple devices the mobile shopping tool of choice

An important part of the data in the IBM study is that along with mobile commerce numbers in general, the study tracked the operating system and device used by surveyed mobile shoppers. The report showed the growing impact of tablets as well as the preference that many online consumers have for Apple's mobile devices.

Of the online shoppers who used their mobile devices to reach retailers' sites, the iPhone and iPad were the two most popular devices. Just over four percent of online shoppers used their iPhones, with 3.3 percent of online consumers using iPads. That means 7.4 percent of all online traffic on Cyber Monday was done on a mobile Apple device.

This is actually a decline from Black Friday's numbers when 10.2 percent of online retail traffic was done using an iPhone or iPad.

Android users accounted for 3.2 percent of online commerce for Cyber Monday. 

What's more, IBM's retail survey showed that shoppers using an iPad converted to a sale at a much higher rate than average. IPad conversion rates were 5.2 percent versus 4.6 percent for other devices.

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