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Cyber Monday off to a strong start thanks to mobile

Cyber Monday isn't even over yet, but mobile shopping already looks like it is making leaps and bounds this year.
Written by Rachel King, Contributor

Cyber Monday isn't over yet, but the initial traffic and sales numbers are already flooding in for what is touted to be the biggest online shopping day of the year.

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Last week, PriceGrabber reported that 41 percent of consumers planned to shop online at some point on November 26 -- up from 37 percent on Cyber Monday in November 2011. Here's a glance at some competing statistics already pouring out this afternoon.

First up, IBM is reporting that early results indicate online sales are up by 24.1 percent as of 9:00 AM PST earlier today over the same time period on Cyber Monday 2011.

While social networking looks like it's playing only a minor part so far with 0.2 percent of all online sales generated from social referrals on Cyber Monday, IBM's Digital Analytics Benchmark analytics platform is revealing much bigger numbers from mobile sources.

So far, IBM has found that the number of consumers using a mobile device to visit a retailer's site is 22.4 percent, with the number of consumers using their mobile device to actually follow through and make a purchase is closer to 12 percent.

The iPhone is proving to be the most popular device for cyber shopping today, according to IBM, with traffic reaching 8.7 percent versus 7.2 percent and 6.3 percent for iPad and Android respectively.

PayPal concurred with the strong emphasis on mobile shopping and referrals. As of 11 AM PST, the payments provider said it is already seeing 196 percent more mobile payment volume on Cyber Monday 2012 than Cyber Monday 2011.

Check back tomorrow for a complete look at Cyber Monday 2012 stats.

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