• by Chuck Martin , Staff Writer, April 13, 2015

Mobile is inching closer to the halfway point of all online traffic but sales are not rising.

Almost half (46%) of all traffic originated from a mobile device in the first quarter, up from 44% in the previous quarter, based on the latest in a series of tracking studies.

The quarterly data from Affiliate Window is drawn from more than 3 million transactions across 1,600 advertisers in the retail, travel and telecom sectors.

The lead of smartphone traffic over tablets also gained, which is consistent with several other recent studies.

Smartphones accounted for 25% of all traffic compared to 18% from tablets. Smartphone traffic is now two and a half times what it was two years ago.

But when it comes to actual sales transactions, desktops continue to rule, accounting for 63% of sales compared to 36% from mobile devices, essentially the same as the previous quarter.

Despite smartphones leading in traffic, tablets lead in sales, at least by a little, with 20% from tablets and 16% from smartphones.

The other issue is conversion, with rates for desktop and mobile both dropping from the previous quarter.

Desktop traffic converted at 6% while mobile converted at 4%, down a percentage from the last quarter.

Despite all of this, the average order value is now at $95, an increase of a few dollars over last year, according to the Affiliate Window tally.

The money also continues to move through mobile. It its network, advertisers saw 30% of their revenue originating from a mobile device.

It will be interesting to see the direction of the money flow once mobile hits the 50% traffic point.