IBM: December online shopping remains strong through the holiday

New York City -- The IBM Benchmark Report, released Tuesday, showed continued strength for online retailers.

According to the report, which provided a snapshot of online retail data for December 25 and December 26 as of 12 pm PST, Christmas Day online sales grew by 16.4% year-over-year. And 18.3% of all online sessions on a retailer’s site were initiated from a mobile device, up from 8.4% on Christmas Day 2010 — an increase of 117.8%.



Other report highlights included:

• Sales from mobile devices reached 14.4% versus 5.3% on Christmas Day 2010 — an increase of 172.9%;


• The iPad led all mobile device Christmas Day traffic at 7%, followed by iPhone at 6.4% and Android at 5%;


• On Dec. 26, online sales were up 10% year-over-year as of noon PST;


• 18.7% of all online sessions on a retailer’s site were initiated from a mobile device on Dec. 26; and


• Sales from mobile devices were at 13.8% when last measured on Dec. 26.