While mobile devices still haven't become core pillars of the shopping experience, 2011 was the year many retailers began experimenting with them. Those retail merchants that took the gamble saw their efforts pay off, with IBM observing a notable uptick in both mobile sales and traffic in 2011.

IBM suggests nearly one-fifth of holiday website traffic (18.3 percent) came from web-enabled phones and tablets, up from 8.4 percent the previous year. On Christmas Day, 14.4 percent of total sales were generated from the devices as well, compared to 5.3 percent one year ago.

"Mobile was certainly a bright spot this holiday season," Todd Cabell, director of ecommerce at Crutchfield, told Internet Retailer. "It's clear more and more customers are becoming comfortable using their mobile devices to research and purchase a wide variety of products."

More than 91 million Americans owned smartphones as of November, and that number continues to grow as each month passes. Moving forward, it will become paramount for retailers to have a mobile plan in play.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Wednesday, January 11th, 2012 at 2:41 am .