Mobile web surge for Argos on Black Friday

Mobile web traffic to British retailer Argos increased by 395 per cent during Black Friday, according to research from Novarra.

Although the event marks the start of the Christmas holiday season in the US, British retailers got an average increase of 40 per cent on 27 November (Black Friday), and 23 per cent on 30 November (Cyber Monday).

Understandably, US retailers enjoyed a much bigger increase in mobile web traffic than European counterparts, with an average 388 per cent increase on Black Friday and 160 per cent on Cyber Monday.

The best performing US websites were bestbuy.com with a 792 per cent increase and walmart.com with 740 per cent.

The results were confirmation that shoppers were increasingly relying on the mobile internet, according to Scott Cotter, senior director of marketing for Novarra.

"For many shoppers, browsing special deals, comparing products, pricing and other information while they are on the run even at a retailer's location, has become second nature," he said in a statement.

In a recent interview with IT PRO, Douglas Orr of Cogenta revealed that 2010 could see a big breakthrough when it came to shoppers buying goods with mobile phones.

This would depend on mobile phones having the right controls in place to make mobile shopping safe, as well as shoppers accepting that it was possible to make purchases on a phone rather than the web.

He claimed that mobile phone could offer levels of security that you can't get online, as well as there being less of a threat when it came to malware.