Mobile Shopping Doubled Over 2011 Holiday Season: IBM, Marin Software

Holiday shopping statistics from IBM show a YoY doubling of both online sessions and sales on retail sites from mobile devices in December 2011. Marin Software corroborates the trend, reporting double the click share from mobile in Q4 over Q3.

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January 11, 2012 Categories

Holiday season 2011 online shopping statistics show tremendous growth in mobile shopping activity, with online sessions and sales on retail sites in December double their volume from the same period last year, according to IBM.

Marin Software also reports that the number of paid search clicks from mobile and tablets doubled over Q3, to 10 percent of all paid search ad clicks. The click through rate on tablets was 38 percent higher than on desktops.

Paid Search Clicks Up 56 Percent YoY in Q4

Matt Lawson, VP of Marketing and Partnerships at Marin Software, tells Search Engine Watch how this translates year-over-year: “Paid search clicks tend to be growing very quickly; we saw a 56 percent YoY increase and a 23 percent increase in click through rate.” Lawson believes the upward trend is a testament to consumer adoption of smartphones and also better performance for advertisers, with higher click through rates and in many cases, lower costs per click. “It’s a combination of a very favourable advertiser environment with higher consumer adoption,” he said.

Key findings from Marin Software’s U.S. Online Advertising Report for Q4 2011:

According to Lawson, “Our advertisers have seen a decrease in cost per click YoY and that speaks to efficiency. That’s prevented run away growth, but we’re definitely seeing healthy growth. We’re curious to see if this continues to play out in Q1 and Q2.”

Online Shopping Up 7.5 Percent in December YoY, Mobile Traffic and Sales Doubled

IBM found that U.S. online retail increased 7.5 percent over December 2010, after a strong November, driven by double-digit growth on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Department store online sales were up 18 percent over 2010, while home goods and apparel sales saw increases of 15.6 and 16.3 percent, respectively.

14.6 percent of all online sessions on a retailer’s site were initiated from a mobile device, more than double the rate of 5.6 percent over this same period in 2010, according to their report. Sales from mobile devices doubled, reaching 11 percent versus 5.5 percent in December 2010.

Other key findings from the IBM Benchmark December holiday report:

“This past December consumers remained committed to finding the best online deals whether through their PC or mobile device,” said John Squire, Chief Strategy Officer, IBM Smarter Commerce, in a written statement. “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 percent over 2010.”

What was your experience over the 2011 holiday season, did you see the same trend? Let us know in the comments!

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