Report says nearly 30% of Black Friday online sales came from smartphones and tablets

By Jason Hahn November 29, 2014

Mobile online purchase — Image used with permission by copyright holder

If you saw a can’t-miss Thanksgiving or Black Friday discount on an item and made the purchase on your smartphone or tablet, you are part of a quickly growing set of consumers, according to Adobe. The company’s latest data shows that nearly 1 in 3 online purchases on Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday happened on mobile devices.

Adobe’s 2014 Digital Index Online Shopping data indicates that 29 percent of sales on Thanksgiving happened on smartphones or tablets, up from 21 percent last year. Meanwhile, 27 percent of Black Friday sales took place on mobile devices, up from 24 percent in 2013.

Smartphones, which usually account for a significantly smaller portion of the mobile sales pie, accounted for 13 percent of online purchases, nearly double its 7 percent share last year. Tablets accounted for 16 percent of online sales during this time, up from 14 percent.

Echoing findings from IBM, Adobe reports that iOS users (79 percent) drove nearly four times more mobile sales revenue than Android users (21 percent).

Adobe’s report also highlights that Thanksgiving Day saw average discounts of 25.2 percent, which was 1.2 percent lower than last year’s discounts.

When it came to social media-driven orders, Adobe reports that the average order value (AOV) from sales coming directly from Facebook was $114.45, followed by Pinterest with an AOV of $93.20 and Twitter with an AOV of $90.74.

4K TVs saw the largest month-over-month jump in social media buzz, as mentions of Sony and Samsung surged 350 percent. Fitbit was the king of wearable devices with 100,000 social media mentions on Thanksgiving and Black Friday. The iPhone 6 led the smartphone category.

Adobe reports that Thanksgiving Day sales hit $1.3 billion this year, while Black Friday sales hit $2.4 billion. The company forecasts that Cyber Monday will surpass Black Friday in online sales.

[Image courtesy of Andrey_Popov/Shutterstock]

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Jason Hahn is a part-time freelance writer based in New Jersey. He earned his master's degree in journalism at Northwestern…

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