As anyone who has ever developed a web application can attest, not all browsers behave the same. There will inevitably things that work in FireFox, but not Chrome – Safari, but not IE, and so forth. These inconsistencies can have major consequences for a business, particularly that of online retailers.

A recent article on UPI.com - which urged retailers to pay more attention to browser issues – also took a look a browser market-share by time of day. Interesting stuff. Here’s a clip:

During the day, when most people are at work, Internet Explorer still has the  biggest share of the browsing activity at e-commerce sites, but the story is  much different in the evening when Apple’s Safari browser, in its desktop and  mobile versions, tops both Internet Explorer and Google’s Chrome browser, CNBC  reported.

Between the hours of 6 p.m. and 6 a.m., Safari takes the dominant position  with a 31.42 percent share of the market, Monetate found.

Retailers need to make sure their sites look good in Safari browsers or they  risk losing potential customers during the peak e-commerce shopping times,  analysts said.

Sites that aren’t optimized for a browser can have problems ranging from text  that doesn’t line up to pictures that won’t load and this can discourage  shoppers, Monetate head Kurt Heinemann said.

Do these browser behaviors reflect your own web usage? Let us know in the comment section.