• by Chuck Martin , Staff Writer, January 10, 2014

Final data from e-commerce holiday shopping continues to come in and paints a picture of the increasing influence of mobile activity.

Some new findings based on research from more than 100 U.S. retailers shows that Black Friday looked like Mobile Friday with a 50% increase over the monthly average in mobile online purchasing.

Almost one in three (29%) of purchases were made on a mobile device, compared to last year’s 20%, according to the 2013 holiday recap from Custora, which covers the entire holiday shopping season.

Overall e-commerce sales grew 12% compared to overall online and offline retail growth during the holiday season estimated to be 3% to 4% over last year, according to the study.

Unlike most other studies, this one shows purchases by smartphone (18%) higher than those by tablet (8%). However, both showed an increase in percentage of sales over last year, with smartphones up 6% and tablets up 3%.

This study is based on aggregated data and includes more than 70 million shoppers and more than $10 billion in transactions, according to Netta Kivilis, Custora’s head of marketing.

It looks like sales via mobile devices are migrating from PCs, with desktop sales down to 71% from 80% a year ago, based on the study.

Consistent with other studies, sales via iOS devices (83%) were significantly higher than those made on Android devices (16%). However, Android share of sales increased 3% from last year while iOS sales decreased by 3%.

Mobile continues its great influence all along the path to purchase, including research, location-based activities, social interactions and ultimately transactions.

The next holiday shopping season will see even more mobile influence. The question is how retailers will adapt.