IBM: Mobile sales up 60% in Q3

New York -- Online mobile sales were strong in the third quarter as mobile percentage of online sales increased more than 60% year-over-year. Led by strong gains in home goods and department store, mobile traffic for U. S. retail overall reached almost 32% in the quarter, up more than 50% while online retail sales overall grew close to 10%.



Those are some of the key findings of the IBM Retail Online Index, part of the cloud-based IBM Analytics Benchmark. The report is the only third quarter retail data available given the government shutdown, which has suspended the Census Department's online survey collections.



Other findings Of the IBM survey include:

• Mobile percentage of sales were near 14%, a 60% increase over third quarter 2012.

• Online retail sales overall grew close to 10%.

• The Apple iPhone generated more online traffic than any other device at close to 12% of retail traffic.

• The iPad was a close second, generating 10.3% of traffic.