Here Comes Santa Claus…With His iPhone!

Yes, it’s that time of year.  Santa and his sleigh are just around the corner, and once again, IBM analytics gurus have been out there reading the digital data tea leaves to get a sense of how this year’s holiday shopping is going to go down.

Here’s this week’s headline: During this year’s November holiday season an unprecedented 15 percent of people in the U.S. logging onto a retailer’s Web site are expected to do so through a mobile device, according to cloud analytics-based findings by IBM.

Based on data from the IBM Coremetrics Benchmark, all online holiday shopping in November is also expected to grow as much as 15 percent versus November 2010, with the growing influence of mobile devices such as iPads and Android phones being among the key factors.

No longer is it just Santa who has the list, or his elves.  No, it’s empowered consumers walking into the store prepared to bargain based on mobile information at their fingertips.

These early holiday season findings are based on data from IBM Coremetrics Benchmark, the only analytics-based, peer-level benchmarking solution that measures online marketing results, including real-time sales data. All of the data is aggregated and anonymous.

The IBM Coremetrics Benchmark analysis gathers data directly from the web sites of more than 500 leading U.S. retailers. Using sophisticated analytics technology, the benchmark measures real-time sales data and online marketing results to uncover shopping trends across a wide-variety of channels including social media, mobile devices and other online sources where consumers interact with their brands.

This latest installment serves as the commencement of IBM’s fourth-annual Benchmark Campaign and reveals the following 2011 online retail predictions for the November holiday season:

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