IBM predicts record mobile holiday sales

IBM is forecasting a record holiday season heavily influenced by digital sales. IBM research based on digital analytics predicts a total online sales increase of more than 15% over a 5-day period between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday.

The biggest increase in online sales is expected on Cyber Monday with a predicted 15.8% increase over the last year, followed closely by Thanksgiving with an increase of 15.6%

Mobile browsing is the primary driver of online growth and will account for 48.2% of all online traffic over the 5-day period, an increase of 23% over last year. Mobile sales are also expected to rise 9.5%. Apple dominates mobile shopping over Android-based devices and will likely see a quadruple increase in sales, according to IBM.

Other predictions include:

Mobile Thanksgiving: For the first time ever, more than half of all online shopping traffic this Thanksgiving (53%) will come from a mobile device, an increase of 23% over last year.

Digital Coupons Pave the Way: IBM expects shoppers to make use of digital coupons, spending on average $123 per online order over the 5-day holiday period.

Less Spam is the Greatest Gift: A more personalized promotions will be rewarded with a 10% higher click-through rate for emails sent over the 5-day shopping period.

Smartphones, Smarter Tablets: Smartphones will continue to lead in mobile browsing, however, IBM predicts that tablets will account for twice as many mobile purchases thanks to the larger screen size.

Health and Beauty to lead Brick-and-Mortar: Health and Beauty products are expected to lead in-store sales with 4.2 percent and 4.7 percent growth in November and December, followed by women’s clothing at 2.61%.

These predictions are based on billions of online and in-store transactions analyzed by the IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark and IBM Quarterly Retail Forecast.