Working with in excess of 1400 advertisers across our network, including many of the leading brands in the UK, it has been possible to take a look at mobile performance from an affiliate channel perspective.

There were certainly some interesting stats to be pulled from the data. Mobile traffic across the network peaked at 39.35% of traffic on Boxing Day with 17.61% of originating from smartphones.

This was slightly higher than Christmas Day, which saw 37.33% of traffic generated through a mobile device with 17.24% through smartphones. 

Mobile sales also peaked on Boxing Day with 33.54% of transactions taking place on a mobile device while Christmas Day was again slightly behind with 33.19%.

Sales over this period were predominately driven by tablet devices although smartphones saw some impressive figures with 10.33% and 9.36% of sales originating from a smartphone on Christmas Day and Boxing Day respectively.

In addition to strong performance in terms of sales volumes, average order values were also impressive. Smartphone AOV peaked on Christmas Day at £77.77 while tablet and desktop AOV peaked a day later at £89.99 and £89.46 respectively on Boxing Day. 

One of our large retailers saw a staggering 55.54% of sales originating from a mobile device on Christmas Day with an impressive 25% through smartphones.

By developing its mobile strategy and ensuring coverage across key publisher’s mobile sites, they were well placed to take advantage of consumers turning to their mobile devices over the Christmas period. 

Strong mobile performance has continued into the New Year. On New Year’s Day, 39.05% of traffic originated from a mobile device coupled with 32.81% of sales.

While there hasn’t been an individual day that has outperformed Christmas Day/Boxing day, the share of mobile traffic in January is set to outstrip December’s performance. 

Typically mobile activity accelerates at weekends and this has increased further so far this year with around 30% of sales originating from a mobile device each weekend. Additionally, it has been possible to understand the device types that are accounting for this increase in activity.

This is dominated by the Apple devices with the iPhone typically enjoying a 65% share of smartphone traffic. It is even more dominant when it comes to sales with around 70% of sales originating from an iPhone.

Looking at tablet devices it is evident that iPad users are more inclined to purchase than their Android counterparts. Despite being responsible for around 25% of tablet traffic, Android devices only account for around 15% of tablet sales. While Android users are browsing, the conversion rate is some way behind the iPad.

As well as being more likely to purchase, Apple users are also spending more with each transaction. iPhone AOV is typically £10 higher than Android handsets while for tablet this is even more stark with iPad users typically spending around £20 more for each transaction.

Mobile commerce experienced exceptional growth in 2013 and it is set to continue this year. With more advertisers launching mobile optimised versions of their sites and publishers enhancing their mobile offering, it will be interesting to see how this develops over the next 12 months.

The full breakdown of December’s statistics including information by device can be found here.