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Customers doing their shopping with tablets in 2011 spent more than twice as much money as those visiting sites on smartphones. They were also three times more likely to make purchases when looking at products on the Web, according to Adobe's Digital Marketing Insights report. The report looked at more than 16 billion anonymous visits to the websites of more than 150 top U.S. retailers.

"The results of this indicate show that tablet devices have become an absolutely critical new sales channel that marketers must address head on," said Brad Rencher, general manager of Adobe digital marketing musiness. "This study shows the importance of optimizing your 2012 e-tail strategy for tablet visitors."

The higher volume of purchases on tablet devices can partly be contributed to the age group using tablets for shopping. A large number of visitors in the study were people between the ages of 18-34, who are more in tune with new forms of technology like tablets, a market that has only taken off over the past two years.

Tablet owners also tend to have a higher income level than those who only own a PC or a smartphone, making them more likely to spend money online. Amazon and Barnes & Noble have recently launched less expensive devices, but the $500 iPad 2 still sits atop the market.

With shopping on all mobile devices on the rise, retailers are likely to take a hard look at the design of their websites' tablet designs. As shoppers continue to use make the portable devices their vehicle of choice when making purchases on the web, companies will sure their mobile websites are easy to use and welcoming to consumers.

Shopping and e-commerce apps are likely to ramp up as well, providing easy-to-navigate portals and catalogs to ease the shopping process.

Analysts expect sales of the iPad, Kindle Fire and Nook to continue to pick up steam in 2012, which will likely lead to even higher levels of e-commerce in the future.