iOS Holiday Shoppers Out-Spent Android Concludes IBM

iPhone and iPad shoppers were more than five times more active than their Android counterparts in online sales on Christmas Day, researchers claim, spending nearly twice as much per order as mobile shopping surged to record levels. Phone and tablet shopping comprised 48-percent of online traffic over the holiday season, IBM Digital Analytics calculated, an increase of 28.3-percent over 2012's split, while mobile sales surged even more, up 40-percent to comprise nearly 29-percent of all online sales for the period.

However, not all mobile shoppers are created equal, the research discovered. Smartphones are more commonly used than tablets to browse online stores, comprising 28.5-percent of online traffic versus 18.1-percent from slates. Nonetheless, when it comes to actually making the sale, tablets dominate, with 19.4-percent completed on the larger-screen devices and just short of 10-percent on tablets.

That bigger display also encourages a bigger spend. Tableteers splashed out $95.61 per order, IBM Digital Analytics says, whereas phone users averaged $85.11.

There's also a significant difference between online shopping and your platform of choice. As in previous years, iOS users have been more active in digital sales, with 23-percent of total online sales coming from iPhones and iPads, while just 4.6-percent came from Android devices.

Meanwhile, iOS users also spent more on average: $93.94 per order, the researchers figure, compared to $48.10 on average by Android users. iOS traffic overall was roughly double that of Android traffic.

Sales in total over Christmas Day were up 16.5-percent compared to the previous year in 2013, so the assessment of "millions of transactions" from 800 retail sites across the US concludes. Interestingly, though sites like Pinterest have pushed their curated lists as a way to drive sales, Facebook recommendations lead to nearly four-times the sales conversion, leading to suggestions that the personal involvement is more than enough to tip the decision balance.