Mobile Has Its Big E-Commerce Moment While Online Traffic & Conversions Hit Seasonal Highs

If your Thanksgiving dinner table was populated with friends and family who couldn’t take their eyes off their mobile phones, you’re definitely not alone. New data from HookLogic, which operates an ad network of online retail sites, reveals that Thanksgiving was a veritable mobile shopping extravaganza, especially early in the morning and in the early evening hours.

In this, Marketing Land’s weekly Online Retail Shopping Report, we’ll share more detail about these findings from Thanksgiving, Black Friday and beyond.

During certain hours of the day on Thursday, mobile devices accounted for around 70 percent of traffic to e-commerce product pages, though their share averaged out at a bit over 60 percent for the day as a whole.

On average, HookLogic has seen mobile traffic just outpace desktop traffic during the holiday season, and Thursday’s activity likely reflected that many shoppers relied more heavily on their devices while away from home visiting their loved ones.

And those Thanksgiving shoppers weren’t solely browsing. Conversions, counting both desktop and mobile visits to product pages, were up 4X compared to the October daily average.

Though Black Friday in-store sales slumped, it may have been because folks chose to shop online rather than brave the notorious crowds — and online retailers encouraged conversions by offering plenty of discounts and deals. Amazon, which isn’t included in the report’s data, told reporters it had a record year on Black Friday and throughout the weekend following.

The HookLogic data show that traffic to e-commerce product pages in its network soared to seasonal highs on Black Friday, and conversions kept good pace.

All of this activity was spread throughout the day on Black Friday, with the bulk of traffic and conversions happening during the middle of the day. By contrast, traffic and conversions on the other days measured tended to peak early in the morning and late in the evening.

About The Author

Pamela Parker

Pamela Parker is Research Director at Third Door Media's Content Studio, where she produces Martech Intelligence Reports and other in-depth content for digital marketers in conjunction with Search Engine Land, Marketing Land, MarTech Today and Digital Marketing Depot. Prior to taking on this role at TDM, she served as Content Manager, Senior Editor and Executive Features Editor. Parker is a well-respected authority on digital marketing, having reported and written on the subject since its beginning. She's a former managing editor of ClickZ and has also worked on the business side helping independent publishers monetize their sites at Federated Media Publishing. Parker earned a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University.