This article was published on December 4, 2012

Forget Cyber Monday: Last Sunday was PayPal and eBay’s biggest mobile shopping day ever


Forget Cyber Monday: Last Sunday was PayPal and eBay’s biggest mobile shopping day ever

On Tuesday, eBay and PayPal announced something that will make you forget all about Black Friday and Cyber Monday; eBay Marketplaces enjoyed its biggest mobile shopping day two days ago on December 2, while PayPal reported the same Sunday as its biggest mobile shopping day ever.

That’s right: PayPal’s total global mobile payment volume on that day exceeded that of Cyber Monday by more than 1 million dollars. In other words, mobile payments are making it so that normal days can bring in more sales than specific holidays marketed as “shop till you drop.”

eBay and PayPal also shared some very impressive projections for their respective mobile businesses. eBay expects to surpass more than $10 billion in mobile volume transactions for the year 2012 from its mobile apps, while PayPal also expects more than $10 billion in mobile payment volume transactions.

As eBay points out, four years ago, mobile payments were just an idea for where devices were headed. Now the company says mobile commerce is “rapidly transforming the retail landscape and calendar.”

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PayPal also shared the following details:

  • PayPal saw 44 percent more payment volume on Cyber Monday 2012 than Black Friday 2012.
  • 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. PST was the busiest hour for online shopping during Cyber Monday 2012.
  • With mobile devices, consumers around the world shopped most frequently between 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. PST on Cyber Monday 2012.
  • PayPal saw 166 percent increase in number of customers shopping with mobile devices on Cyber Monday 2012 as compared to last year.
  • Shoppers in these cities made the most purchases through PayPal on Cyber Monday 2012: Houston, Miami, Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York.

Conventional wisdom assumes Black Friday or Cyber Monday should be both service’s biggest shopping days, but it turns out mobile shopping is still growing at a pace where that rule simply doesn’t apply. With mobile devices, shoppers don’t have to worry about traffic, parking, opening and closing hours, and all that other nonsense. They can laze around and shop from their couch, bed, or toilet seat.

2012 looks like it will be a huge year for mobile payments. As a result, we wouldn’t be at all surprised if the record is broken yet again. After all, the holiday season is still a good three weeks away.

See also – Thanksgiving 2012 mobile payments: PayPal sees 173% increase, GSI up 170%, eBay up 133% and PayPal’s Cyber Monday: 190% increase in mobile payment volume, 166% more mobile shopping customers

Image credit: Korosy Istvan

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