IBM Executive: Consumers Are Twice As Likely To Buy On A Tablet Than A Smartphone

The technology giant International Business Machines Corp. IBM works with many different retailers through its IBM ExperienceOne division.

Jay Henderson of IBM's ExperienceOne was recently on CNBC to discuss how mobile has impacted shopping this holiday season.

"Throughout the year, IBM works with over 8,000 brands as part of our smarter commerce business. This time of year we narrow that down to about 800 U.S. retailers to bring you some of these statistics and I think the good news is that holiday shopping is up across each of the key shopping dates, as well as all of the days in between," Henderson said.

When queried about the dismal numbers announced by National Retail Federation which contradicted his statement that holiday shopping is up, Henderson replied, "So, that is a number that’s really focused around in-store sales. What we are seeing is that consumers are really turning online and are really driving a lot of strong  growth in online shopping this year."

On shopping through hand-held devices, Henderson said, "So, we have seen tremendous growth over the last few years for mobile shopping. On Thanksgiving Day more than 50 percent of all online traffic came from mobile devices. More than a third of all online purchases came from mobile devices. The new Thanksgiving tradition is mobile shopping. We are seeing twice as many people buy through smartphones and tablets, we are really seeing people using smartphones to browse and tablets to buy. So, you are twice as likely to buy on a tablet than on a smartphone."