Infographic: Monetate Explains Why Tablet Buyers Are the Ones to Watch

According to new research compiled by Monetate, tablet buyers are more frequent purchasers than those with smartphones.

The message, according to the firm, is a simple one: cater to those who are most likely to buy from your site, with both special offers and either an app or a specially-formatted mobile site.

In one anecdote, Mary Meeker, a Kleiner Perkins analyst, revealed recently that she browsed One Kings Lane on a daily basis, reserving a few moments out of her day to shop. That’s precisely the buyer that a merchant should be addressing, according to Monetate, whose research also shows that tablet buyers are more likely (10 percent to 6 percent) to browse and buy on a daily basis. Smartphone buyers are more infrequent shoppers, outpacing tablet buyers when they shop less than once a month.

Meeker also revealed that the number of smartphones and tablets combined now outpace the combined total of desktop and mobile PCs. Although the iPad controls a dominant 67 percent share of the overall tablet market, the typical tablet owner is wealthy: 53 percent of the tablet owners average an annual household income of $75,000 or more, versus 28 percent of all Americans who make that level of income. About 62 percent have full-time jobs, Pew found.

Two weeks ago, payment processor eBay and its PayPal division also marked the changes in mobile commerce. As Monetate notes, the average consumer is typically turning to the smartphone (or tablet) to research a purchase and find the best price, whether that be online or in a nearby physical store.

“I see an enormous acceleration of the pace and change of innovation. I think it’s more than that. I think we’re at an inflection point,” where shopping will change, said John Donahoe, chief executive of eBay. Donahoe predicted that the world will see the way consumers shop and pay over the next three years change more drastically than over the last fifteen.

“The line between online and offline is blurring, and they’re blurring dater than anything you’d imagine 12 months ago,” Donahoe said.

Today, in almost half of all retail transactions, a consumer accessed the Web, Donohoe said. By 2013, about $10 trillion of transactions will be completed, according to Forrester data Donohoe cited, with the Web influencing virtually ever transaction.