EBay maps holiday mobile shopping trends

By Aemon Malone Published December 2, 2010

EBay has posted an interactive “global heat map” showing where mobile shopping is popular this holiday shopping season (and where it’s not). The site lists 20 eBay categories and the total values for purchased items in a given region. The data only covers transactions that occurred through eBay’s mobile apps during Thanksgiving week and Black Friday through Cyber Monday.

The map, which is powered by Google, lets users select from six countries: the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom. Australia, Canada, and France. The U.S. portion is further broken down by state. So, for example, it is possible to see just how much mobile eBay shoppers in Virginia spent on musical instruments on Nov. 29, Cyber Monday (answer: $1,174). There is also a comparison option to measure popularity of different categories in different regions. For example, in Texas, sporting goods brought in more money than health and beauty products.

Looking at the U.S. map overall, you won’t see any real surprises. The more densely populated urban regions tend to be much more active in mobile shopping than states that are primarily rural. Wyoming, for instance, rang in about $4,000 on Cyber Monday while California accounted for over $400,000 in sales on that same day. No real shocker, but it would be interesting to see a per capita comparison among the states.

EBay’s mobile shopping sales from Nov. 22 – Nov. 29 were overall up 230 percent from the same period a year ago with cars and trucks, and clothing and jewelry being the most popular categories among mobile shoppers. The U.K. was the strongest purchaser of cars and trucks, accounting for 20 percent of sales there. New York, California, Pennsylvania, Texas and Florida were the top states in eBay’s mobile sales from Nov. 22 – Nov. 29. California was the most active state, leading in both sales and volume.

EBay’s iPhone app – there are now six different eBay iPhone apps – was the most popular among mobile shoppers, making up for around two thirds of transactions during the holiday week. Blackberry, Android and app-less mobile Web browsers accounted for the remaining one third.

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