Retailers will ring in the New Year next week having wrapped up a successful holiday shopping season that saw consumers utilizing more channels to interact with their stores – predominantly through mobile devices. This is a trend that will continue to accelerate with more than 90 million smartphone users and 24 million tablet users in the US. In this changing technology landscape, RichRelevance, the global leader in dynamic personalization for Retail, today released its inaugural Holiday Shopping Study to give companies new insight into how these consumers shop and buy. The study analyzes 3.4 billion shopping sessions between April and December to uncover the trends that have shaped Holiday 2011 and will define 2012.

Key findings from the Holiday Shopping Study include:

• Mobile Continues Strong 9-Month Growth: In the last nine months, the share of U.S. online retail dollars attributable to mobile devices has doubled from 1.87 percent in April of 2011 to 3.74 percent in December 2011. RichRelevance also tracked a spectacular increase in mobile traffic as share of commerce page views with more than 15 percent of shopping sessions occurring on mobile devices. In April of 2011, just under 9 percent of all shoppers were browsing digital aisles via a mobile device. By December of 2011, the share has more than doubled, reaching 18 percent of all consumers.

• Apple iPad and iPhone Dominate Mobile Shopping: Apple mobile devices account for the bulk of all online non-desktop sales: just over 92% of the sales originated from an iPad or an iOS-enabled device in December 2011, up from 88 percent in April. Apple mobile devices also have a larger AOV compared to other mobile platforms ($123 for Apple vs. $101 for Android in December 2011) – and far outstrip desktop orders ($87)

• Average Order Value Slips But Mobile Stays Strong: Overall average order value (AOV) declined beginning in November 2011, due to economic factors and the influx of shoppers during the holiday period when there are more buyers and orders tend to be frequent and smaller. However the AOV on mobile devices remained stronger. In April, desktop and mobile-originated online average order sales (AOV) were neck-and-neck ($149 and $153, respectively). Now, in mid-December, mobile AOV is averaging $120 compared with desktop orders, which have slid to $110.

The Holiday Shopping Study analyzes the shopping patterns of US online consumers. The study is based on more than 3.4 billion online shopping sessions, which took place between April 1, 2011 and December 18, 2011 on the web sites of US online retailers. These retailers include mass merchants, as well as small and specialty retailers, including 10 of the 25 largest retailers on the web.

Source: RichRelevance, Inc.

MacDailyNews Take: Again, when you have a choice of catering to customers with money and the will to spend it versus those on constant lookout for Buy One Get One (or More) Free deals, choose the former.

Cheapskates who settle for inferior, highly-derivative goods make awful customers.

Smart developers develop for iOS and port watered-down apps — due to extensive fragmentation, not all features can make the cut — to the lesser platforms, if they bother at all.

Our advice to developers who’re thinking about taking their quality iOS apps and excreting them for Android: Make them free and load them up with plenty of dollar store ads.

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Apps for Google Android make only 24% as much as same apps for Apple iOS devices – December 13, 2011
Eric Schmidt: Google’s Android to top Apple’s iOS among developers within 6 months – December 7, 2011
Apple’s iOS app downloads per user outpace Android’s 2-to-1 – October 25, 2011
Why Google’s Android is doomed – September 23, 2011
Android apps much less profitable than iPhone apps – September 9, 2011
Why iOS development is winning – August 5, 2011
Verizon iPhone and iPad 2 cause Google’s Android to lose developer support to Apple’s iOS – July 14, 2011
Apple iOS users buy 61% more apps, pay 14% more per app – June 11, 2011
Starbucks exec: Android apps often ‘watered down’ – May 16, 2011