[Techtaffy Newsdesk]

The U.S. retail industry saw continued growth in online and mobile buying trends in the first-quarter, driven by rising digital consumer marketplace. Mobile commerce grew to more than 13 percent, while online buying grew more than 6 percent in March 2012, according to anonymous data gathered by IBM’s cloud-based retail online economic indicator analytics report.

This report follows recent news from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Census Bureau which announced its estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for the first-quarter 2012. According to the findings, retail sales increased by 0.8 percent in March compared to February and sales for the month were up 6.5 percent compared to the same time last year. Total sales for the first quarter of 2012 were up 6.4 percent from the same period a year ago.

IBM’s retail online economic indicator identified several trends of importance to chief marketing officers, e-commerce leaders and customer service professionals. The most notable development over this first-quarter period was the continued growth of mobile commerce sales which accounted for 13.3 percent of online retail sales, double the number seen in the same time-frame the previous year, says IBM.

In addition to sales, the economic indicator identified an increase in positive consumer sentiment around key attributes of a successful digital buying experience. The indicator found consumers are increasingly optimistic when it comes to convenience, experience and overall value, each up from this same period last year, based on their online shopping experience.  Businesses are also increasingly looking to analyze social media such as Facebook and Twitter to assess the way their customers view them.

Part of IBM’s Smarter Commerce initiative, the retail online economic indicator draws data and insights from IBM’s big data offerings to provide the industry’s most comprehensive look into the pulse of online retail through traditional and social media channels.  The indicator analysis for first-quarter 2012 reveals the following trends:

Online Retail Sales for Q1 2012 versus Q1 2011

• Consumer Spending: While total online sales were down 1.9 percent over Q1 2011, sales increased 6.3 percent from February to March 2012.
• Mobile Sales: Sales from mobile devices reached 13.3 percent, up from the 7 percent in Q1 2011.
• Mobile Traffic: 17.1 percent of all online sessions on a retailer’s site were initiated from a mobile device, exceeding the 6.1 percent over this same period in 2011.
• Mobile Devices: Apple’s iPhone continued to rank one for mobile device retail traffic at 6.5 percent with Android taking second at 5.9 percent. iPad came in third at 5.3 percent.
• Social Traffic: Shoppers referred from Social Networks generated 1.1 percent of all online traffic over Q1 2012, identical to the 1.1 percent seen in 2011.
• Social Sales: Shoppers referred to retailer sites from Social Networks generated 2.4 percent of all online sales over Q1 2012, an increase from the 1.7 percent seen over this period last year.

Online Retail Categories for Q1 2012 versus Q1 2011:

• Apparel stores maintained strong momentum with Q1 sales growing 14.9 percent
• Department stores continued to catch the attention of consumers with sales growing 20.4 percent
• Health & Beauty sales grew by 28.8 percent as consumers continued to treat themselves this quarter
• Home goods experienced a 29.3 percent increase in sales in Q1 with consumers continuing to shop for their homes.
• Jewelry stores continued recent momentum with sales growing by 11.3 percent
• Office Supply/Electronics experienced growth in Q1 with online sales increasing by 6.6 percent

Consumer Sentiment for Department Stores for Q1 2012 versus Q1 2011

• The Buying Experience:  While consumers believe the overall “Buying Experience” improved year over year, the digital online experience saw the most positive improvements in sentiment.  A leading factor was convenience which had a 65.8 percent positive sentiment rating, more than six times the negative sentiment. This was followed by value which was 51.8 percent, interaction at 36.6 percent and deals at 30.4 percent.
• The Online Influence: The key elements driving growing positive sentiment have the highest affinity with the online channel, demonstrating the influence it is having on the overall buying experience. These concepts include information quality and availability, in-store integration, convenience, shipping and interaction.
• Product Availability: On the opposite side of the spectrum, negative sentiment was highest around availability which received a rating of 24.4 percent.

IBM online economic indicator
The IBM retail online economic indicator features data from IBM’s analytics offerings including the Benchmark and IBM Cognos Consumer Insight.

All of the data is aggregated and anonymous.  Analysis of public social media content came via IBM Cognos Consumer Insight which provides insight into underlying holiday shopping trends, hot topics of discussion and consumer sentiment.