• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, January 17, 2014

According to the year-end online sales trends from the IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark, overall fourth quarter online sales were up 10.3% year-over-year, as mobile traffic soared, accounting for nearly 35% of all online traffic, up 40% compared to the fourth quarter of 2012. Mobile sales also remained strong, reaching 16.6% of all online sales, up more than 46% over the same period last year.  

More of the key drivers of online mobile sales include:

• Smartphones drove 21.3% of all online traffic, nearly double that of tablets at 12.8%, making it the browsing device of choice, but tablets drove 11.5% of all online sales, more than twice that of smartphones, which accounted for 5%  
• Tablet users averaged $118.09 per order, versus smartphone users, who averaged $104.72 per order
• As a percentage of total online sales, iOS was almost five times higher than Android, driving 12.7% vs. 2.6% for Android. On average, iOS users spent $115.42 per order, nearly 40% higher than Android users, who spent $83.56 per order.  iOS also led as a component of overall traffic with 22.1% vs. 10.6% for Android 
• Shoppers referred from Facebook averaged $60.48 per order, versus Pinterest referrals, which drove $109.93 per order.  However, Facebook referrals converted sales at more than three and a half times the rate of Pinterest, perhaps indicating stronger confidence in network recommendations  

Supporting these overall trends, the study reported real-time trends across a number of retail subcategories throughout the fourth quarter:  

• Online sales for Department Stores in the forth quarter grew by 62.8% over 2012, with mobile sales growing by 49.6% year over year
• Health and Beauty online sales grew by 14.7% over 2012, with mobile sales growing by 81.7% year over year
• Online Home Goods sales grew by 46.4% over 2012, with mobile sales growing by 38% year over year
• Online sales of Apparel grew by 10.2% over 2012, with mobile sales growing by 54.5% year over year

These updates are based on the cloud-based IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark, a cloud-based digital analytics platform that tracks millions of transactions and analyzes terabytes of raw data from approximately 800 retail sites nationwide.

For more information about the benchmark report, please visit IBM here.