By the Numbers: Black Friday, Cyber Tuesday & Mobile

Whether you battled the crowds last week or scored great online deals this week, many more of you used your mobile phone this year. According to the National Retail Federation, 139M shoppers spent $59 billion on Thanksgiving weekend alone, with nearly 40.7% online—a 7.6% jump over last year.

What part did mobile play in this retail bacchanalia? Here’s some impressive numbers for you to process:

Mobile accounted for 16.3% of online sales (IBM Benchmark).
Mobile phones accounted for 58.6% of the traffic (IBM).
iPad drove 88.3% of the tablet traffic (IBM).
Mobile accounted for 25% of black Friday and 22% of Cyber Monday sales (Adobe).
eBay/PayPal experienced 511% increase in Thanksgiving Day mobile payment activity since 2010.

The impact of smartphones, especially when they’re attached to youth, powered these results:

30M Smartphones have been injected into the US since 11/2011 (comScore).
The iPhone 5 generated more mobile sales in three days than the iPhone 4S did a month, driving holiday sales (comScore).
38% of Students said that they’d do mobile shopping on Thanksgiving Day (Digitas).
32% of Students are likely to decline a Thanksgiving meal invitation if they know they would not be able to use their mobile devices while there. (Digitas)

So did you use your mobile phone when shopping this past weekend?

3FER: 30 November 2012

Happy Holidays to all of you and your loved ones. Here’s what I’ve been watching over the last few weeks:

#1: Will Black Friday become Mobile Friday?

Last year, there was a lot of noise for Social Commerce during the holiday retail binge. This year, mobile commerce shined and there was little mention of social media. Here’s some numbers for you to consider: http://bit.ly/Tx5Ab0

#2: QR codes for Christmas?

Though many probably included the “death of QR Codes” on their holiday wish list, smart retailers understand the value of this battered tool. From mobile layaway to rebates to packaging, Mobile Marketer has a great post on a few of the ways they’re being leveraged this holiday season: http://bit.ly/Tx5wrP

#3: Looking for mobile innovation? Look West.

And I mean West Africa: http://bit.ly/Tx5kJb

Questions?

Often times, it takes loads of energy to fire out a question via email, and making a call is not possible. Here’s a more painless method, simply text your questions HELPME to 75309. I’ll reply with answers ASAP.

-Curt