The availability of cheap smartphones and tablets might mean that Android has a larger market share than iOS, but iOS users certainly spend more.
Analyzing sales trends from Thanksgiving, IBM notes that iPhones and iPads were responsible for far more payment activity online, with average orders worth $118.57 compared to $95.57 for Android.
But that’s not where iOS’s sales triumph ends. iOS also generated more site traffic at 36 percent versus 16 percent for Android. Even more impressive, iOS devices accounted for 25 percent of all sales — next to a minuscule 7 percent for Android.
While it’s hardly news that iOS users — who on average spend more money on their smartphones and tablets — also have more disposable income for shopping, it’s particularly good news for Apple in a year when the company is pushing the benefits of its easy mobile payment solution, Apple Pay. As TechCrunch points out, “[P]eople are already using iOS devices to transact, so adding a mobile wallet to use in physical situations is a no-brainer.”
Apple is convincing more and more banks and retailers to hop on board, and stats like this can only help it.
Also revealed by IBM’s study — which tracked sales of around 8,000 brands across 35,000 client commerce engagements — is that customers are more likely to make purchases, and to spend more, when using a tablet instead of a smartphone. The average order for a tablet purchase was $122, next to $105 for smartphones.
Furthermore, tablets represented just under 18 percent of sales, next to 14 percent for phones.
Source: IBM
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
4 responses to “25% of Thanksgiving shoppers relied on iOS devices to bag a bargain”
This is a promising development for Android. This is in stark contrast to the projected “Android users spend no money” stereotype. Android may lag iOS in numbers, however, the Android numbers are worthy of note. The other way to look at this is: why are iOS users spending only 24% more than Android users and why is iOS web traffic only 20% more than Android?
What are you reading? The average single order is 24% more. iOS drives more than twice the traffic as Android.(16% vs 36%) And 25% of TOTAL sales vs 7% for Android. Meaning iOS at 36% of traffic manages to be 25% of TOTAL sales. While Android is 16% of all traffic but only manages to be 7% of total sales.
Maybe Android users spend their money more wisely. You don’t see Android users waiting in line for days so they can upgrade to a slightly better phone.
Android users go to the mall see a bunch of iOS users waiting in line… Confused because the android users don’t know why anyone would wait in a line for anything… Android user goes home and uses his amazon prime account to buy same thing online.
The iOS user rushes into store and gets tackled trying to get a deal on a TV by another iOS user. He manages to get the TV away from the other iOS user but his phone got bent and he has to now go to the apple store and beg forgiveness for bending something that doesn’t bend.