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Christmas Day Online Sales Rose 16.5%

UPS and FedEx were swamped this year moving and delivering packages. I attribute the chaos to the uptick in online sales. This year, I did most of my shopping online with only one snafu. The backup only affected one gift from me, flowers, an order we canceled because UPS admitted to not having the capacity to deliver the flowers as promised.

The delays didn't stop consumers from searching online and buying gifts for themselves and loved ones, even on Christmas Day. In fact, Christmas Day online sales rose 16.5%, compared with the year-ago day, per IBM's Digital Analytics Benchmark report.

Smartphones drove 28.5% of all online traffic compared with tablets at 18.1%. Tablets drove 19.4% of all online sales, more than twice that of smartphones, which accounted for 9.3%. Consumers on tablets  also averaged $95.61 per order, compared with smartphone users at $85.11 per order.

Overall, mobile traffic accounted for 48% of all online traffic, up 28.3% compared with the same period last year. Mobile sales hit nearly 29% of all online sales, up 40% compared with 2012.

iOS drove more than five times higher sales, compared with Android, 23% vs. 4.6%, respectively. On average, iOS users spent $93.94 per order, nearly twice that of Android users, who spent $48.10 per order. iOS also led as a component of overall traffic with 32.6% vs. 14.8%, respectively, according to the IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark report.

How did friends and follows on social sites influence purchase decisions? Shoppers referred to sites from Facebook spent on average about $72.01 per order, compared with $86.83 per order from Pinterest referrals. Referrals from Facebook, however, did a much better job converting sales. In fact consumers who came from Facebook made a purchase nearly four times more than the rate from Pinterest.
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