Data Monday: Mobile Holiday Shopping 2013

by November 30, 2013

This year, it should be no surprise that people use mobile devices to buy things online. But when you compare this year's early holiday shopping numbers with last year, the growth actually is pretty surprising.

Last Year...

Mobile e-commerce traffic was under 30% and mobile was responsible for only 14% or purchases made on Thanksgiving in 2012.

  • 28.5% of US consumers used a mobile device to visit a retailer’s site on Thanksgiving 2012. (source)
  • 14.1% of consumers used their mobile devices to make purchases, up four percentage points from 2011. (source)

This Year...

Mobile e-commerce traffic was over 50% and mobile was responsible for over 25% of purchases made on Thanksgiving in 2013.

  • Mobile devices accounted for over one-quarter (25.8%) of all sales on Thanksgiving 2013 and nearly half of all e-commerce traffic. (source)
  • Mobile accounted for nearly 26% of all sales up 49% from 2012. (source)
  • Tablets saw 16.5% of all online sales and smartphones accounted for 9%. (source)
  • iOS accounted for 21% of all sales, while Android accounted for only 4.6% of sales. (source)
  • Walmart's mobile traffic during Thanksgiving 2013 made up 53% of total traffic. (source)
  • New customers making purchases for the first time on Walmart mobile was up three times from last year. (source)
  • There was a 91% increase in consumers shopping through PayPal mobile around the world and PayPal mobile payments volume was up 114.7% over Thanksgiving 2012. (source)
  • Looking at Thanksgiving & Black Friday combined in 2013, more than 24% of online sales occurred on smartphones and tablets, an increase of 118%. iOS-based devices drove more than $543 million dollars in online sales, with iPad taking a 77% share. Android-based devices were responsible for $148 million in online sales, a 4.9% share of mobile driven online sales. (source)