News

IBM unveils back-to-school online shopping numbers

Overall, U.S. retail online sales for August were up more than 11 percent as compared to the same period last year.

September 8, 2014

IBM has announced results from its Digital Analytics Benchmark platform for the month of August. According to the company, the Benchmark tracks millions of transactions and analyzes terabytes of raw data from approximately 800 retail sites nationwide. Overall, U.S. retail online sales for August were up more than 11 percent as compared to the same period last year.

Some of the key drivers:

• Mobile Traffic and Sales:Busy parents turned to their mobile devices to complete their back-to-school shopping on the go. In August, mobile traffic accounted for 41.5 percent of all online traffic, up 34 percent compared to the same period last year. Mobile sales saw strong growth, up nearly 39 percent, reaching 7.8 percent of all online sales.
• Smartphones Browse, Tablets Buy: Smartphones drove 27 percent of all online traffic compared to tablets at 13.8 percent, making it the browsing device of choice. When it comes to making the sale, tablets drove 11.5 percent of all online sales while smartphones accounted for nearly half of that at 6.2 percent. Tablet users also averaged $110.93 per order, versus smartphone users, who averaged $95.65 per order.
• iOS vs. Android:As a percentage of total online sales, iOS was more than four times higher than Android, driving 14.2 percent vs. 3.5 percent for Android. On average, iOS users spent $108.81 per order compared to $77.66 for Android users, a difference of 40 percent. iOS also led as a component of overall traffic with 27.4 percent vs. 13.7 percent for Android.
• The Social Influence – Facebook vs. Pinterest:Shoppers referred from Facebook averaged $113.20 per order, versus Pinterest referrals, which drove $142.76 per order. However, Facebook referrals converted sales at a rate more than three times that of Pinterest referrals, perhaps indicating stronger confidence in network recommendations.