Last year was the year that the tablet became an online retailer’s best friend as it emerged as the preferred device for many shoppers to make their purchases.

Based on its analysis of 16.2 billion visits to the websites of more than 150 retailers in 2011, Adobe Digital Marketing Insights found that Tablet Visitors spend over 50% more per purchase than visitors who use smartphones and over 20% more than visitors who use desktop/laptop computers. Additionally, Adobe found that Tablet Visitors are three times more likely to make a purchase than Smartphone Visitors and nearly as likely to purchase as Traditional Visitors.

Other findings from the Adobe study (Link to the Adobe study ^[1]) include:

• Tablet Visitors respond to promotions: Conversion rates and average order values on Black Friday and Cyber Monday rose above their 2011 Holiday and Calendar 2011 averages.
• Tablet Visitors are rapidly growing in size. Although they generate a small portion of total website visits, their share of total visits increased from 1% to 4% in just 12 months.
• Tablet Visitors appear to spend more because of their demographics, the nature of the tablet user experience, and the environment in which Tablet Visitors shop online.

These findings suggest that retailers can no longer afford a “one-size-fits-all” approach to mobile optimization because Tablet Visitors and Smartphone Visitors are distinct customer segments. Retailers should evaluate the opportunity that Tablet Visitors offer and develop strategies to better attract, convert and retain them.

Another study by Ipsos OTX MediaCT ^[2] on behalf of PayPal found that tablet owners were almost twice as likely to make purchases as those who only have smartphones. And 28 percent of dual smartphone and tablet owners said they were sure they spent more due to mobile shopping, compared with 13 percent of smartphone owners who said the same.

GigaOm: Tablets: the perfect shopping device ^[3]