Online sales on Thanksgiving day up 19.7%

Mobile traffic accounted for nearly half of all online traffic this year

Thanksgiving is the day we come together to give thanks for turkey, mashed potatoes, indoor plumbing, light switches, pre-sliced bread, and more. But when the food is eaten and everyone is massaging their precious, precious food babies, what’s left to do but get out the iPad and do some shopping? (One ambitious cousin at my in-laws’ house tried bringing up Obamacare at the table, but that shit got shut down quick.)

On Thanksgiving day, online sales for the full day were up 19.7% over last year, with the average order coming in at $127.59, according to IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark. While IBM doesn’t give the total dollar amount spent on Thanksgiving day, this year’s growth rate is an increase over last year, when sales were up 17.8%.

Mobile sales were particularly strong, accounting for 25.8% of all online sales. By comparison, mobile sales accounted for just 15.4% of all online sales last year. Mobile traffic, however, accounted for nearly half of all all online traffic at 42.6%.

Once again, smartphones drove more mobile traffic—26.6% of all online traffic, while tablets drove just 15.3% of all traffic. BuuUUUUuuut, tablets accounted for 16.5% of all online purchases, nearly twice that of smartphones at just 9%. Those who shopped from tablets were also more likely to make bigger purchases than those shopping from smartphones, with the average purchase from a tablet coming in at $126.49, compared to $110 from smartphones.

And like last year, iOS drove a larger chunk of shares than Android—21% versus 4.6%. Additionally, iOS orders were larger on average than Android orders: $121.61 compared to $106.44.

IBM, which analyzes some 800 retail sites nationwide, found that Facebook referrals converted shoppers at nearly three times the rate of Pinterest referrals. And shoppers who were referred from Facebook placed slightly larger orders than Pinterest, spending an average of $105.97 per order compared to $103.05 spent by Pinterest referrals.

ComScore is projecting $2 billion in sales on Cyber Monday alone, which would be a pretty significant leap over the $1.46 billion in sales last year—a 20% year-over-year growth rate, to be specific.

Naturally, mobile commerce is expected to be huge this year. ComScore predicts that sales on mobile devices will account for $200 million, while desktop commerce will account for $1.8 billion. That may seem like a small fraction, but mobile commerce is expected to reach its highest ever percentage of total e-commerce sales in the fourth quarter at 12-13%, accounting for $10 billion in sales altogether. And the shorter shopping season will likely result in a greater reliance on mobile devices.

Image source: digitaltrends.com