Merry Christmas? More Like Mobile Christmas.

‘Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a Magic Mouse.

The stockings were hung by the AppleTV with care, in hope that Saint Nicholas would soon be there.

Gifts labeled ‘mom’ and gifts labeled ‘dad’, gifts of iPhones and gifts of iPads.

If there has ever been a larger indicator of mobile taking over the digital world, it has been this holiday shopping season. Some have even gone so far as to say that Black Friday can be viewed almost like a measuring stick for how effective mobile advertising is. And even though the overall amount of money being spent is increasing by an estimated 4%, retailers are actually a little less than enthusiastic, due to a growing trend among shoppers, particularly holiday shoppers. It’s called showrooming.

Showrooming describes what happens when someone goes into a retailer, looks at a product, holds it, judges it and makes a purchasing decision, and then leaves to order it on their mobile device. Because, more often than not, a lower price can be found online. In a related study by Retail Customer Experience, it was found that 25% of those orders made from a mobile device were placed inside of a retail store.

This is especially interesting when you think that just a few years ago, mobile shopping was still very much regarded with caution and fear by the average consumer. Since then, the relationship between the average user (consumer) and their mobile device has clearly become more intimate as people begin to move away from larger desktop workstations toward more mobile-friendly devices.

And it isn’t just the purchasers that are in on the mobile trend. Their kids are too. This year, the single most requested tech gift is the Apple iPad, with a whopping 48% percent interest among people 6 to 12 years of age or older, followed by the Wii U, iPod Touch, iPad Mini and iPhone. Combine this with the fact that the iPad made up almost 90% of Black Friday tablet traffic, and 10% of ALL Black Friday web traffic, and we can see that not  just mobile, but the iPad specifically, is a place where retailers should be looking to improve their customer experience.

If this year is any indication, then this Christmas, and the next several Christmases to come, will indeed be very mobile Christmases.