John Lewis predicts that this year will be the UK's first 'mobile Christmas' with traffic from mobile phones and tablets overtaking that from desktops for the first time on Christmas Day itself. Mobile made up almost 50% of all traffic to johnlewis.com on 25 December 2012 and the retailer expects that mobile will overtake desktop traffic at 5pm on Christmas Day this year. The prediction coincides with the launch of John Lewis' new transactional iPad app.

Mark Lewis, online director, said: "Mobile is set to be the shining star of Christmas 2013. Shopping is becoming much more of a social experience with people browsing, purchasing and sharing ideas with others using their mobile phones and tablets. We expect this to increase dramatically during the festive period as customers shop on the go and we anticipate that Christmas Day will be the tipping point for mobile."