IBM: Mobile yields 16% of Black Friday 2012 digital sales

Mobile traffic was a major catalyst behind the growth of online shopping on Black Friday 2012. According to IBM, 24 percent of consumers visited retailer sites from a mobile device, up from 14.3 percent on Black Friday 2011. In addition, mobile sales exceeded 16 percent, up from 9.8 percent a year earlier.

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Overall, online sales increased 20.7 percent year-over-year from all device platforms, according to IBM. The company also noted that Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPad generated more traffic than any other tablet or smartphone, accounting for close to 10 percent of all online shopping, followed by the iPhone at 8.7 percent. The iPad also drove 88.3 percent of tablet traffic, ahead of Barnes & Noble's Nook at 3.1 percent and Amazon's (NASDAQ:AMZN) Kindle Fire at 2.4 percent.

IBM notes that many consumers shopped in store, online and on mobile simultaneously to identify the best Black Friday bargains. Fifty-eight percent of all U.S. shoppers accessed smartphones to find deals; another 41 percent surfed for bargains via tablet.

Shoppers targeted Black Friday deals across a variety of product segments, IBM adds. Home goods experienced a 28.2 percent increase in sales over Black Friday 2011; apparel sales jumped 17.5 percent year-over-year, while health and beauty sales grew 11 percent.

Black Friday 2012 yielded $1.04 billion in online sales nationwide, representing the heaviest online spending day this year and signaling a 26 percent increase over year-ago totals, comScore reports. Thanksgiving Day digital sales also jumped 32 percent to $633 million.

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