Tablets and smartphones are gaining in popularity as a means for visiting shopping websites, accounting for a quarter of total visits, according to the U.S.-based marketing software firm Monetate. However, conversion rates remain higher for visits made with traditional devices (PCs and laptops), according to Monetate's third quarter 2013 Ecommerce Quarterly report.

Monetate's EQ reports analyze a random sample of more than 600 million online shopping experiences using "same store" data across each calendar quarter.

The percentage of visitors to shopping websites using traditional devices fell from 83.22 percent in Q3 2012 to 75.29 percent in Q3 2013, according to the report. In the same period, visits by smartphone users went up from 8.32 percent to 10.06 percent. Visits by tablet users gained the most, rising from 8.45 percent to 14.65 percent. Together, tablets and smartphones accounted for 25 percent of website visits in Q3 2013.

Conversion rates — from visits to sales — remain low, suggesting that consumers are using their devices to research and compare products.

Monetate said conversion rates dropped for users of both traditional devices (from 2.8 percent to 2.65 percent) and tablet users (from 2.35 percent to 2.18 percent) between Q3 2012 and Q3 2013. Conversion rates for smartphone users rose slightly from 0.76 percent to 0.85 percent in the same period. Apple iPads had higher conversion rates than either Kindle Fire or Android tablets, and iPhones had higher conversion rates than Android- or Windows-based devices in Q3 2013.

Average order values rose for users of traditional devices, tablets and smartphones between Q3 2012 and Q3 2013. The highest order value was seen for tablet users ($138.75, up from $110.03 in Q3 2012), compared to $136.15 ($105.09 in Q3 2012) for traditional device users and $114.14 ($98.35 in Q3 2012) for smartphone users.

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