Online sales hit $3.34 billion as mobile commerce dominates, says Adobe
Black Friday and Thanksgiving shoppers increasingly relied on the small screen as mobile traffic dominated online sales, according to data compiled from various sources. Adobe reported that online sales hit a record $3.34 billion on Black Friday.
ChannelAdvisor described the figures as a tipping point for mobile e-commerce.
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According to ChannelAdvisor, 68.2 percent of Thanksgiving Day e-commerce traffic came via a smartphone. Toss in tablets and 77.8 percent of traffic on Thanksgiving came via a mobile device.
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And perhaps the biggest wrinkle is that mobile orders outpaced computer orders. Fifty-three percent of orders were driven through a mobile device. Mobile devices still struggled to deliver sales conversions (2.1 percent for smartphones), but traffic delivered the numbers, according to ChannelAdvisor.
Walmart's mobile traffic was more than 70 percent of its Black Friday total, said ChannelAdvisor.
Other firms also highlighted the mobile data in their Black Friday recaps. Consider:
- Adobe reported that Black Friday online sales were a record $3.34 billion with $1.2 billion spent via mobile devices. Adobe also noted that large retailers have seen twice the growth in online sales. Mobile was 55 percent of traffic (smartphones and tablets combined), according to Adobe.
- The average order value on Apple's iOS smartphones was $142 compared to $130 on Android, said Adobe.
- Conversion rates are still an issue for mobile. Salesforce noted that phones accounted for 56 percent of traffic on Thanksgiving, but 37 percent of the orders.
The data sets up the Cyber Monday push for e-commerce. Cyber Monday is built on the idea that employees shop from their desktops when at work. The reality is that Black Friday deals start earlier every year and ultimately blend into Cyber Monday. In the end, you really have a 4-day online shopping binge.