Confirming a holiday rush to the mobile internet by shoppers, Novarra, an Internet Mobility specialist, has reported mobile phone web traffic to retailer and shopping info web sites on Black Friday increased twelve fold and more than doubled on Cyber Monday compared to before the holiday shopping season kick off.
The results are based on a sampling of web traffic through Novarra deployments for a variety of ‘brick and mortar' retailers in the US and UK, including Abercrombie, Argos, Asos, Best Buy, Currys, Debenhams, John Lewis, Macy's, Nordstrom, Sears, Target, Tesco, Topshop and Walmart, as well as e-tailers Amazon and eBay.
Specific findings are said to include:
– For retailers, Black Friday beats Cyber Monday in the US: average page view increases via mobile for US retailers were up on average 388 percent for retailers tracked on Black Friday but only 160 percent on Cyber Monday. In the UK, where Black Friday is not a retail event, page views were up a more modest 40 percent on Friday the 27th and 23 percent on Monday the 30th.
– The Black Friday US winners were: bestbuy.com (792 percent), walmart.com (740 percent), sears.com (492 percent) and macys.com (447 percent). UK retailer argos.co.uk was a standout in that market with a 395 percent increase.
– As expected, traffic to Black Friday ad sites and Cyber Monday shopping sites, including bfads.net and cybermonday.net, skyrocketed nearly 100,000 percent for the week of November 24-30 as consumers checked for the best "door buster" and online deals, with a steep peak leading up to Black Friday.
"This is further confirmation that consumers increasingly rely on the internet via mobile phones for their daily habits and routines," said Scott Cotter, senior director of marketing, Novarra. "For many shoppers, browsing special deals, comparing products, pricing and other information while they are on the run – even at a retailer's location, has become second nature."
Recent Novarra Mobile Internet Experience Update results are said to show a 190 percent increase in mobile social networking site page views. In addition, Novarra recently reported a 1,068 percent increase in micro-blogging click-throughs during the first three quarters of 2009 and dramatic game day mobile web traffic increases during the Major League Baseball World Series.
The retailer data was collected from mobile web use provided through Novarra's Vision mobile browser and mobile internet and multimedia platform. Novarra is said to deliver mobile internet access to two thirds of US mobile phone users and over one billion globally.