Desktop or laptop users are a bit more likely than tablet users to make a purchase from a retailer’s website, but those tablet users who do buy something are big spenders. Adobe Systems(NASDAQ: ADBE) analyzed 16.2 billion anonymous visits to the websites of more than 150 top U.S. retailers during the 2011 holiday shopping season. The results showed that tablet users spent significantly more per visit than those who visited the same sites using desktops, laptops or smartphones.
Adobe wants retailers to invest in upgrading their websites for mobile browsers, and now it has some data to support this advice. Its survey found that tablet users spent 21% more per purchase than desktop/laptop users, and 54% more than smartphone users. Since more affluent consumers tend to be early adopters of newer products like tablets, the higher per-visit expenditures of the tablet users is at least partially explained by their higher income levels.
Tablet visitors accounted for just 4% of visitors to retail websites studied. With the price of tablets expected to come down in the months ahead, it’s reasonable to expect that the share of online retail spending coming from tablets will go up, while the spending gap between tablet users and computer users may narrow as tablets are adopted by less affluent consumers.
