Mobile impact in Black Friday

[note  iwork for IBM,  so I thought I should declare that before you begin]

So Black Friday has been and gone,  the last of the turkey has been eaten, and we are all back at work.

IBM produces the reference report for Black Friday online sales, and for the last few years has looked at the use of mobile devices for shopping over that weekend.

The interesting thing is that mobiles are used so much,  half the traffic is mobile,  and this shows people browsing for things to buy.

Note however that the percentage of sales is heavily skewed to the PC,  and the retail clients I talk to tell me that a lot of users will browse and select on their mobile device (phone or tablet) and then transfer to their PC to buy.  I presume this is an effect of confidence, I am more happy entering credit details, and double checking details on a PC with a decent, large keyboard, than I am on a phone or tablet.

The larger value of the order on a PC support this, because if I am buying more then I need further reassurance,  and the PC still provides this.

Confidence and ease of use also kicks in when you look into the breakdown of iOS against Android.  Android numbers far outweigh iOS,  however iOS devices are owned by the more cash rich segments of the market with more money to spend and this drives up the value of the order.  The apple devices have taught users to be happy to purchase (as the app store / iTunes have such a simple click to buy mechanism), and this drives up the number of sales that are completed,  it has become a learned behaviour,  it is ok to buy things on your phone.