150 Per Cent Mobile Growth Drives Stronger Christmas at Shop Direct

Shop Direct, the retail group which owns Very.co.uk, Littlewoods and isme, saw sales from mobile devices grow by 150 per cent year-on-year during the festive period.

According to Shop Directs Christmas trading update, covering the six weeks ending 29 December 2012, that helped push its overall sales up by five per cent, compared to the same period a year earlier.

With the proportion of online sales rising from 74 per cent a year earlier to 80 per cent, its clear where Shop Directs future lies, and mobile is very much part of that. Mobile devices accounted for 28 per cent of all online sales – around two-thirds of which came via tablets – and 37 per cent of all online customer interactions. 

Mobile shoppers also seem to be willing to buy bigger-ticket items, with the average mobile order value growing eight per cent over the course of 2012.

Looking at what exactly shoppers were buying during this period tells a similar story. Shop Direct sold over 91,000 tablets over the six weeks, equivalent to one device every 40 seconds. And tablets werent just popular among adults – the LeapPad 2 and InnoTab 2 devices for kids beat the Furby into third place on the toy and gaming bestseller charts.