Real-time clicks measured over the Christmas period by Adfonic across its global mobile advertising marketplace show that mobile is driving a shift in the way that consumers browse for gifts and hunt for sale bargains.

Adfonic saw mobile clicks for the first half of the month peak on Sunday, 12 December, (dubbed ‘Mobile Sunday’ by eBay), with a 400 per cent increase compared to the beginning of the month. Reflecting a shift from the peak second Monday of December that we’re used to seeing online, Adfonic believes this spike in mobile activity is likely to be down to consumers using smartphone devices to research product information and uncover bargains as they browse the shops.

Adfonic’s figures show that click volumes began to build again from 21 December, before reaching an overall peak for the month on Boxing Day, which saw a further 26 per cent increase over Mobile Sunday. While several retailers have reported a slower than expected start to the January sales on the high street, mobile has bucked the trend, as consumers turn to their mobile devices to hunt out bargains in the sales.

Christmas Day itself was the second biggest day in December for mobile clicks across the Adfonic marketplace; highlighting the trend for an even earlier start to online sales, combined with the popularity of smartphones and tablets as must-have Christmas presents for 2010.

Looking more closely hour-by-hour, Adfonic’s detailed real-time reporting shows that the peak time for mobile clicks in the UK over the Christmas celebrations was between 9-10pm on Boxing Day, while the Christmas Day high was between 5-6pm. With mobile games proving the most popular apps clicked on during Christmas day, the company wonders whether mobile surfing has replaced charades as the favourite post-lunch pastime.

Mobile was widely expected to drive an increase in online sales this Christmas. The IMRG (Interactive Media in Retail Group) predicted that some 20 per cent of the £6.4bn expected to be spent online would be via mobile, while the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) estimated that 67 per cent of consumers would use mobile devices to search and pay for Christmas gifts.

But according to Adfonic CEO, Victor Malachard, these figures reflect only part of the impact that increasing smartphone and tablet adoption is having on overall commerce trends. He says: “In addition to armchair shopping, as savvy bargain hunters use their mobiles to research product information and find the best prices as they shop, we’re starting to see the extent to which mobile is shaping overall consumer purchase decisions. As the wealth of information constantly available to consumers via their smartphone devices grows, mobile is proving to be a key component in driving commerce both on mobile sites and apps, as well as on the high street.”