December 23, 2011, 1:06 PM — More than 92% of online sales originated from an iPad or an iOS-enabled device in December, up from 88% in April, according to retail analysis company RichRelevance.
This trend, of course, can't continue. Amazon's Kindle Fire and the Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet should start grabbing some market share. But these latest numbers certainly underscore Apple's current dominance of mobile shopping.
Not only are the vast majority of online purchases initiated with an iOS-powered device, the average order value is higher -- $123 for Apple mobile devices in December, compared to $101 for Android devices. (AOV for desktop orders lagged way behind at $87.)
“The numbers across our retailing partners sites demonstrate just how powerful the iOS platform is enabling mobile web shopping,” David Selinger, CEO of RichRelevance, said in a statement.
The company's Holiday Shopping Study analyzes shopping patterns of U.S. online consumers, gathering data from more than 3.4 billion online shopping sessions from April 1 to December 18.
Other significant findings:
• The share of U.S. online retail dollars attributable to mobile devices doubled to 3.74% in December from 1.87% in April.
• By December, 18% of page views on ecommerce sites came from mobile devices, double the 9% in April.
Back in June, Forrester Research analyst Sucharita Mulpuru wrote that mobile commerce will grow to $31 billion by 2016 from $3 billion last year. That $31 billion would comprise only 7% of overall online sales, Mulpuru said at the time.
But given that RichRelevance data shows the percentage of mobile purchases already nearing 4% of all online sales -- and we're still in 2011, mind you -- and it would appear Mulpuru's forecast is conservative.
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