Over the past several years, the Monday following Thanksgiving has been called “Cyber Monday” in the US, as this is the day that many people start their online shopping for Christmas.

With more and more consumers preferring to use mobile for online commerce, Cyber Monday also provides a good measure of the growth of m-commerce, and 2012 proved the importance of mobile.

Here are some interesting facts about this latest Cyber Monday, which occurred 26 November, 2012.

In the UK, the first Monday of December has developed as “Cyber Monday”. This year it fell on December 3, and it was the busiest online shopping day in UK history, with shopper making 112 million visits to retail sites, and increase of 32% over 2011. Mobile plays an important part in this, with eBay UK Mobile and Argos Mobile being the third and sixth fastest moving websites respectively on Cyber Monday.

Carin Van Vuuren, Marketing Chief for Usablenet, commented on the importance of mobile, especially tablets: “The rise in tablet traffic is significant for retailers, especially with iPad leading this growth, as not only is it becoming the fastest growing channel, but users have a higher basket value than smartphone shoppers, and it is a more convenient shopping experience due to a larger screen.”