Department store John Lewis has predicted that this year will be the first 'mobile Christmas' in the UK as traffic from smartphones and tablets overtakes PCs on Christmas Day.
Mobile made up almost half of traffic to johnlewis.com on the big day last year and the retailer expects that mobile will overtake desktop traffic at 5pm and that mobile traffic will peak at around 10pm. It also expects 1 million mobile visitors on Boxing Day after last year's 920,000 visits.
Mobile now accounts for 40 per cent of traffic on the site, up 115 per cent on last year, it said. Fashion has seen a significant increase with 78 per cent of sales in the category now completed on a mobile device.
In anticipation of the swing, John Lewis has launched its new transactional iPad app. John Lewis said the app will bring 'rich content from the retailer's magazine and catalogues to the shopping environment.' It also relaunched its iPhone app this Autumn and has wi-fi in shops to encourage browsing on the web.
'Mobile is set to be the shining star of Christmas 2013. Shopping is becoming much more of a social experience with people browsing, purchasing and sharing ideas with others using their mobile phones and tablets. We expect this to increase dramatically during the festive period as customers shop on the go and we anticipate that Christmas Day will be the tipping point for mobile,' said online director Mark Lewis.
He said customers tend to buy lower value items on mobile devices but that there is a 'significant proportion' of customers buying big ticket items. The most expensive so far is a £7,000 television.
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