IBM: Mobile devices accounted for 14.3% of Black Friday online retail traffic

Armonk, N.Y. -- U.S. shoppers took advantage of early sales this holiday driving a 39.3% increase in online Thanksgiving day spending while setting the stage for 24.3% online growth on Black Friday compared with the same period last year, according to the fourth annual IBM Coremetrics Black Friday Benchmark study, which tracks more than a million transactions a day, analyzing terabytes of raw data from 500 retailers nationwide.



Black Friday witnessed the arrival of the mobile deal seeker, IBM reported, as mobile traffic increased to 14.3% on Black Friday 2011 compared with 5.6% in 2010. Sales on mobile devices surged to 9.8% over year.



In other IBM findings:

• Mobile shopping was led by Apple, with the iPhone and iPad ranking one and two for consumers shopping on mobile devices (5.4% and 4.8% respectively). Android came in third at 4.1%. Collectively iPhone and iPad accounted for 10.2% of all online retail traffic on Black Friday.

• Mobile shoppers demonstrated a laser focus that surpassed that of other online shoppers with a 41.3% bounce rate on mobile devices versus online shopping rates of 33.1%.


• Shoppers referred from Social Networks generated 0.535 of all online sales on Black Friday. Facebook led the pack, accounting for 75% of all traffic from social networks.

In online retail categories, department stores sales were up 59.0% from this time last year. Home goods reported a 48.8% increase in sales from Black Friday 2010.

Apparel sales were also strong this holiday with Black Friday numbers showing an increase of 47.2% over 2010. Health and Beauty sales were strong as consumers showed a desire to pamper themselves this year. On Black Friday, online sales were up 34.2% year over year.