The UK saw a dramatic increase in online sales this Holiday Season, with Boxing Day showing a 40.4% increase in online sales compared to 2012, mainly due to an increase in mobile device usage.
Following trends set by Black Friday and Cyber Monday, Boxing Day saw immense growth in mobile device usage with a 42% increase compared to 2012. Smartphones and tablets were responsible for 45.2% of all online sales made this year during Boxing Day and also provided 58% of all online traffic. This is the first time we have seen mobile traffic surpass PC generated traffic, proving smartphones and tablets are the preferred web surfing devices by the majority of online shoppers.
While smartphone and tablets drove traffic and sales up this year, each was used differently. Smartphones alone drove 30% of online ecommerce traffic this year, compared to tablets with 28%. While those numbers are fairly close to each other, it is easy to spot which devices were preferred for placing transactions, with tablets reaching a 29.4% share of online sales compared to smartphones’ 15.8% share.
Also similar to previous sales days, iOS powered devices ruled over Android smartphones and tablets with a 41.8% share of all online traffic compared to Android’s 15.1%. iOS was also the preferred operating system when making the purchases themselves, holding a 34.7% share of all online transactions and Android only holding a 9.8% share. The remaining 0.7% originated from other mobile devices, like BlackBerry OS and Windows powered smartphones and tablets.
There is no question mobile devices are becoming the preferred method for internet usage. As we mentioned in our 5 crucial points to get your online store ready for 2014, mobile sales are expected to increase in the years to come. Now that mobile usage has surpassed PC usage it is more essential than ever to prepare your store for mobile use if you haven’t already.
Image courtesy of Wikimedia
