As more online shopping moves to mobile and tablet devices, PCs are the obvious losers in the e-commerce wars.
But Facebook, which once also dominated social media referrals into e-retailers, is losing share too.
About 67 million iPads have been sold since the device was launched. Apple now claims it sells more iPads than any other PC—and that's having a profound impact on e-commerce and social commerce retailers.
"Desktop and laptop usage is being replaced by tablet browsing," according to a new report by Monetate, the e-commerce customization company. "At the current rate, website traffic from PC users will dip below 75% in less than one year."
Until very recently, nearly 100 percent of shoppers arriving at retailers' web sites did so on a PC.
But "at the current rate, website traffic from PC users will dip below 75% in less than one year," Monetate's report says, because of the iPad.
In addition, Facebook's dominance of online shopping referrals has weakened. It once served 88 percent of e-commerce referrals. Now it only serves 59 percent. Pinterest is stealing its share over time, the numbers show.
The following slides are a selection from Monetate's "EQ1 2012" report into social commerce. The data is drawn from more than 100 million online shopping experiences.
The death of the PC? Traffic to e-commerce sites from tablet devices increased 348% in one year; visits from smartphone users increased 117%. PCs, however, lost 6 points of share.
Tablets are almost as effective as PCs for converting users into customers. Phones are the least effective for purchases. The conversion rate for smartphone shoppers has never gone above 1.7%, Monetate says.
Similarly, tablets are now just as effective at getting existing shoppers to add things to virtual shopping carts. Phones aren't.
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