• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, December 8, 2011

Anecdotal evidence and prior research have shown to date that tablets are turning out to be a bigger boon to retailers than initially expected. While only about 10% of Americans own tablets to date, about 20% of all m-commerce is estimated to come from the devices.

Shoppers using tablets also appear to deliver higher conversion rates than mobile phones or PCs, at 4% to 5%, according to Forrester.

In that vein, a new survey released Thursday estimates that 87% of people who shop via tablets will spend $325 on average using their devices this holiday season. The study, conducted by Equation Research on behalf of marketing technology provider Zmags, identified clothing, toys and luxury items as strong categories for tablet commerce. Toys, for example, are browsed by 43% of tablet users, with 38% of that group buying them on tablets.

The findings also underscore that tablets play as second screens at home. Half of tablet users surveyed said the couch is their favored location for shopping, with 20% doing so in bed. The kitchen counter, malls and coffee shops were among other locations cited. 

Separate data from Compete on Thursday indicated that mobile shopping more broadly usually takes place at home. In the last three months, nearly two-thirds of mobile users shopped at home, while 34.5% did so in stores, 28% at work, and 28.6% while waiting for an appointment or event to begin, according to Compete’s Online Shopper Intelligence survey.

When asked what shopping-related activities people performed on their mobile device, more than half (56%) said they looked up store information, 40.6% compared prices, 35.7% reviewed a product description, 32.7% looked for coupons, and 31.8% made a purchase. "Consumers are using their mobile devices to primarily educate themselves," noted a Compete blog post on the research, making transparency on pricing all the more important for retailers.

When it comes to tablet shopping, the Zmags study found men are bigger spenders than women. More than half (52%) of male tablet owners estimate they will lay out between $201 and $500 via their tablets, compared to 37% of female shoppers planning to spend at that level.

Almost half of tablet users overall expect to spend even more next year on their devices, compared to only 19% of smartphone owners planning to increase m-commerce activity on handsets.

The results of the Zmags study were based on a survey of 1,500 online shoppers, including 238 tablet owners.