Additionally, eBay saw a 153 percent increase in mobile payments volume transacted on Black Friday compared to 2011. GSI saw a 198 percent increase in mobile sales compared to last year.

“At PayPal, we’re seeing that while many shoppers continue to head in-store, we’re also seeing more and more consumers are choosing the convenience of shopping via their mobile devices on Black Friday,” said Claudia Lombana, shopping specialist at PayPal.

Mobile shopping
Shoppers in Houston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami and New York made the most mobile purchases through PayPal on Black Friday.

The PayPal and eBay transactions are further proof that mobile commerce is big and getting bigger by the second.

Consumers are increasingly turning to their mobile devices to make day-to-day purchases.

Furthermore, this year, consumers made mobile a priority – especially during Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday.

On Thanksgiving, eBay saw a 133 percent increase in mobile volume transacted compared to last year, while PayPal confirmed Thanksgiving Day resulted in more than a 2.5-fold – 173 percent increase – in global mobile payment volume compared to 2011.

Moreover, GSI saw a 170 percent increase in mobile sales compared to 2011.

According to PayPal, on Thanksgiving, consumers around the world shopped on mobile most frequently between noon through 1p.m. pacific standard time.

PriceGrabber
According to PriceGrabber’s mobile and online Black Friday 2012 report, which looked at how shoppers access PriceGrabber.com through their smartphone, tablet or desktop device, found that Black Friday smartphone traffic account for 18 percent, while tablet traffic account for 10 percent.

Desktop traffic saw 72 percent.

In addition, smartphone traffic saw an increase of 3,343 percent compared to Black Friday traffic last year, while tablet traffic saw a 993 percent increase in traffic.

According to PriceGrabber, consumers who were using their smartphone devices this year to browse for products search for clothing, electronics indoor living, toys and computers.

Tablet consumers mostly searched for electronics, clothing, indoor living, computers and sporting goods.

Branding Brand
Branding Brand, which powers mobile sites for retailers such as American Eagle Outfitters, Anthropologie, Crate & Barrel, Sephora, Ralph Lauren and Steve Madden released its Mobile Commerce Index, which featured a compilation of 66 mobile sites developed by the company for retailers across various industries including apparel, health and beauty and home goods.

The index includes a collection of data on commerce sites specifically designed for smartphones, as opposed to non-optimized desktop sites with mobile traffic.

On Thanksgiving Day, Branding Brand saw 3.1 million visitors – 63 percent coming from iOS devices and 32 percent coming from Android.

Additionally, there were 29,880 orders made, of which 70 percent came from iOS and 29 percent came from Android.

There was an $81 average order value and 20.3 percent of total ecommerce traffic came from smartphones.

Compared to 2011, Branding Brand found that visits increase 103 percent, average order value increased 19 percent and mobile sales increased 221 percent.

For Black Friday, Branding Brand saw 3.5 million visitors – 63 percent coming from iOS devices and 32 percent from Android.

Additionally, there were 50,905 orders placed. Sixty-nine percent from iOS devices and 29 percent from Android.

There was also a $78.92 average order value.

Twenty percent of total ecommerce traffic came from smartphones during Black Friday.

Compared to last year, visits increased 101 percent, average order value decreased 7.5 percent and mobile sales increased 128 percent.

“While Thanksgiving Day has traditionally been the quiet before the storm, 2012 was different,” said Chris Mason, cofounder/CEO of Branding Brand.

“This year, many retailers opened on Thanksgiving or started their Black Friday deals early online.

“Those who were not at home turned on their phones to make sure they didn’t miss out,” he said.

Final Take