From Black Friday to Cyber Monday, consumers spend more than $4 billion on mobile

Over this past weekend, shoppers turned increasingly to smartphones to shop — and buy. Data from Adobe, Salesforce, Shopify and Rakuten Marketing all show significant growth in the use of mobile devices over last year, though the specific numbers are somewhat inconsistent.

More mobile traffic and sales. Salesforce reported that on Thanksgiving Day, mobile devices generated 68 percent of retail site traffic. More significantly the company said that, for the first time, 54 percent of orders were placed on smartphones.

Shopify, which has a larger percentage of small merchants on its platform, reported an even higher mobile conversion share. The company said that over the Black Friday to Cyber Monday period, “66 percent of sales from Shopify merchants were made on mobile, compared to 34 percent made on desktop during this time.”

By contrast, Adobe reported that Cyber Monday posted a record $7.9 billion in sales, which made it the largest online shopping day in the U.S., beating last year’s $6.6 billion and Black Friday’s $6.2 billion this year.

More than $4 billion in sales. However mobile transactions represented a minority of total sales on Cyber Monday, according to Adobe’s data. On Black Friday, mobile drove almost 34 percent of purchases. On Cyber Monday, over 54 percent of retail site visits came from mobile devices but only 28 percent of purchases. Black Friday and Cyber Monday smartphone combined sales exceeded $4 billion.

Finally, Raukuten Marketing reported that mobile devices showed the largest transaction growth over the long weekend, with mobile revenues increasing 52 percent and mobile conversions growing 61 percent. The company said that 31 percent of Cyber Monday buying happened on smartphones.

What matters to marketers. The obvious takeaway is that creating a compelling mobile experience is critical for retail success, whether pure ecommerce or omnichannel. The data sources agree that the majority of retail traffic was driven by smartphones and tablets. And increasingly sales are going to be on smartphones.

Next year there will likely be consensus among the data sources that smartphones are driving at least as many conversions as the desktop.