Just like last year, Apple’s iPhone and iPad again dominated online shopping traffic and online mobile sales during Christmas Day, according to an IBM survey first shared by VentureBeat.
Based on data from IBM’s real-time Digital Analytics Benchmark, which tracked approximately 800 retail websites in the United States, iOS devices were responsible for an average of $97.28 per order spent online versus $67.40 for Android users, a difference of 44.3 percent.
In other words, a commanding 57.1 percent of online shopping via mobile during Christmas Day was carried out using an iPhone or iPad, an increase of 8.3 percent versus the previous year.
Speaking of traffic, a whopping 39.1 percent of total online traffic originated from iPhones and iPads versus 17.7 percent for Android devices.
Mobile sales were responsible for over a third of total Christmas Day online sales, or approximately 34.8 percent, an annual increase of 20.4 percent. And the most important metric, iOS sales accounted for 27 percent of total online sales, or nearly four times that of Android which drove 7.6 percent of all online sales.
All told, IBM found that tablets accounted for about sixteen percent of online traffic during Christmas Day while smartphones made up 40.6 percent. Moreover, tablets are credited with 18.4 percent of online sales versus 16.3 percent for smartphones, a difference of 12.4 percent.
If you take a look at U.S. online sales during Black Friday and Cyber Monday, iOS devices topped Android with an average of $118.57 per order (Android: $95.57) and $114.79 per order (Android: $96.84), respectively.
Analyzing trends across two leading social networks, Facebook and Pinterest, IBM found that Facebook referrals drove an average of $89.80 per order, while Pinterest referrals averaged $99.86 per order.
There’s little doubt that strong sales of the latest iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus have contributed to the 8.3 percent increase in Apple’s favor over the previous year.
Various analysts are predicting biggest-ever holiday iPhone sales of more than 70 million units. Apple will be reporting its holiday quarter earnings in January 2015.
Add to the above the introduction of Apple Pay (with support for mobile payments in apps) and the fact that iOS users are generally perceived as more willing to buy stuff online than their Android counterparts and the results of IBM’s survey are not entirely unexpected.
Another factoid to consider: iOS has a larger market share in the U.S. than Android. Last year, IBM found that Apple’s mobile platform was five times as popular as Android for Christmas shopping on mobile than Android.
What devices did you use to shop for Christmas presents?
[IBM via VentureBeat]