PCs still tops, but tablet share growing quickly

Tablets are a bigger driver of e-commerce sales than are smartphones, according to a new study from online marketing technology company Monetate. The larger handheld devices have overtaken smartphones even though they have a lower adoption rate. Monetate's figures indicate that, at this rate of growth, tablets will begin grab significant e-commerce share from PCs over the next year.

Monetate's data is drawn from analyses of more than 100 million online shopping experiences. In the first quarter of 2012, tablet traffic to e-commerce sites jumped to 6.52 percent. For the same quarter last year, tablets had a 1.66 percent share of e-commerce transactions. Smartphones had a 5.35 percent share, up from 4.23 percent for the same quarter last year. Ninety-five percent of tablet traffic was from Apple's iPad.

PCs are still by far the most popular e-commerce option, with 88.12 percent of all traffic. However, that figure is down from 94.12 percent for the first quarter of 2011. Should this trend continue, Monetate estimates that PCs will make up less than 75 percent of e-commerce traffic within the next year. Analysts at Monetate still see the smartphone as important for e-commerce purposes, though they say the devices will likely become reference devices, allowing customers to check out products, but not necessarily serving as purchase portal. [via GigaOm]

By Electronista Staff

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industry, gadgets, Monetate