IBM, Nielsen Analyze Separate Holiday Shopping Behavior

Shoppers were online and in stores spending during the weekend prior to Thanksgiving Day. The average order value fell 5.4% to $112.86, but online sales rose 18.7%, compared with the same two days in 2013. Shoppers purchased an average of 3.2 items per order, per analysis released Monday.

Analysis from IBM's holiday shopping report suggests that mobile browsing on smartphones and tablets will account for 48.2% of all online traffic over the five-day period between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday, up 23% compared with last year. Mobile is projected to account for 24.4% of all online sales over the five days, up 9.5% year-over-year (YoY).

During the weekend prior to Thanksgiving, mobile traffic accounted for 48.8% of all online traffic, up 24.4% YoY. Mobile sales accounted for 26.6% of all online sales during the two days, up 23.9% YoY.

Smartphones drove 31.8 percent of total online traffic, nearly double that of tablets, which accounted for 16.5 percent of all online traffic. Tablet sales accounted for 17.3 percent of online sales -- nearly twice as much as smartphones, which accounted for 9.2 percent of total online sales. 

Apple iOS led the way in mobile shopping last holiday weekend, outpacing Google Android, per IBM. Apple iOS users averaged $111.55 per order compared to $86.56 for Google Android users -- a difference of 28.9%. Apple iOS traffic accounted for 33% of total online traffic compared with Google Android, which drove 15.3% of all online traffic. Apple iOS sales accounted for 20.8% of total online sales compared with Google Android, which drove 5.4% of all online sales.   

Marketers continue to rely on social channels to drive brand loyalty, and rightfully so. Facebook referrals drove an average of $101.83 per order, while Pinterest referrals averaged $103.87 per order, but referrals from the former converted sales at twice the rate as the latter, per IBM.   

Some 55% of shoppers plan to shop on Cyber Monday this year, compared with Black Friday. Women will lead men with 60% planning to shop Cyber Monday versus 50% of men, per Nielsen. Retailer Web sites are the top source for information on Cyber Monday sales at 59%, followed by Cyber Monday deal Web sites at 57% and emails at 49%. Some 39% of shoppers this year will rely on social media Web sites like Facebook and Twitter for deal details, while 33% of shoppers will still use newspapers or circulars.

Nielsen took a view through the perspective of gender differences. Men tend to skew toward Cyber Monday deal Web sites, and women gravitate toward retailer's sites. How much will men vs. women spend? Some 31% of men plan to spend between $250 and $500 on Black Friday, where 28% of women will do the same. The survey identifies 90% of men plan to shop Cyber Monday on a computer or laptop, whereas 88% of women said they would do the same. Ironically, more men -- at 35%, compared with women at 31% -- plan to rely on a tablet to go online and shop this Cyber Monday.

Top spending destinations point to toy stores, 26%; online, 40%; electronic stores, 49%; discount stores, 55%; 56%, department stores. Nielsen Black Friday and Cyber Monday insights were from an online English-language survey of 1,150 respondents from a sample of consumers age 18 and older.

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