• by Chuck Martin , Staff Writer, December 8, 2014

Stats around the impact of mobile on holiday shopping continue to show increases from months and years past.

Mobile traffic is approaching the halfway point with desktop visits dropping below half for the final days of November, based on the latest in a series of tracking studies.

Mobile traffic accounted for 44% of all November traffic, peaking at 49% on the last day of the month, following a Black Friday traffic share of 46%, according to the study.

The monthly data from Affiliate Window is drawn from 4 million network transactions across 1,600 advertisers in the retail, travel and telecom sectors.

In its network, more than a third (36%) of sales started from a mobile device, the highest level since the monthly tracking started two years ago. On the Saturday after Black Friday, sales via mobile hit 42%.

The average value of those sales also increased to $105, up from $97 in October.

By device type, desktop still leads smartphone and tablets, both of which reached their highest levels in two years. Here’s the breakdown of traffic by device for the last week in November:

• 50% -- Desktop
• 24% -- Smartphone
• 23% -- Tablet

Consistent with other research, iPhone traffic accounts for the majority (72%) of traffic and most (74%) of smartphone sales.

While most (63%) sales still occur on desktop PCs, smartphone or tablet sales account for more than a third (36%).

Countless studies show that the large majority of consumers prefer shopping in a physical store. Meanwhile, studies like this one continue to show the steady climb of mobile activity, much of it behind the scenes.

Other research (58% of Mobile Shoppers Prefer Phones Over Salespeople) also shows that while in stores, shoppers prefer to use their mobile devices rather than salespeople to help them shop.

It will be interesting to see over time if more smartphone commerce transactions occur within the physical confines of a store compared to those transactions that happen on the outside.

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