Recent Online Sales Show Shoppers Beating Black Friday Rush

Photo source: IBM

Another Black Friday has gone by as the defacto start to the 2013 shopping season in the United States. Still predominately a US moment of consumerism, the day has taken advantage of a period after their Thanksgiving Day holiday. With Black Friday, the mood changes from that of family togetherness. Buying gifts for others for holidays, the shopping season is also a period where consumers are encouraged in indulge. Low prices on desirable goods insures consumers have an extra incentive to part with their cash or credit.   

While the majority of Black Friday crowds were well-maintained for the most part, there were more than enough references to shoppers behaving badly. Either the fierce determination to buy a super cheap door-crasher or simply the stress of the densely populated shopping centres and stores has resulted in some situations where many US shoppers want to seek some kind of sanctuary. Free of crowds and guilt of leaving early for a shopping centre, online buying has become an attractive, less stressful way to endure Black Friday.

In recent years, the Monday following the US thanksgiving had been named the prime shopping time for online deals. Called Cyber Monday, new data published by IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark has determined online retail benefitted from both Black Friday as well as Thanksgiving Day itself. According to the IBM report, shopping online during Black Friday showed a sizable 18.9 percent compared to the previous year. The Average order amount had also showed a modest 2.2 percent increase over 2012 at $135.27. More impressive growth was shown on Thanksgiving Day 2013 equating to 19.7 percent.

The IBM report of online shopping has also detected a big increase with purchases made on mobile devices. On Black Friday 2013, smartphones were part of 24.9 percent of online buying traffic. Sales made on smartphones average in value of $115.63 on Black Friday. Signifying an increase of more than 10 percent with smartphone buying, the report showed double growth in the use of tablets for online shopping. Purchases on tablets were also shown to, on average, exceed those made on smartphones by $20. Also measured was the two dominant mobile platforms iOS and Android operating system. Accounting for 18.1 percent of all online sales according to IBM, the iOS user's transaction was measured at $127.92. Android device users only accounted for 3.5 percent of online orders averaging at $105.20.

Despite easy accessibility to brick-and-mortar stores, online shopping was highly favoured in major cities. New York City proved the most popular locale for Black Friday activity online.





Photo source: IBM



Online Retailers Hoping to See Colour of Money on Green Monday

Photo source: Door County Visitor Bureau/DoorCounty.com

So far during this holiday shopping season, there has been a virtual party going on through e-commerce. According to digital monitoring company comScore, 2012 has been a most opportune time to operate online businesses. comScore assessed that from November 1st to December 7th, shopping online in the United States has grown into a 26.8 billion American dollar marketplace. Up 13 percent from the same period in 2011, virtual shoppers have spent over three billion dollars extra online.

Breaking the data down for 2012, this past week resulted 6.44 billion dollars in sales. Three of those days last week accounted for over a billion dollars in transactions. Going back several weeks, Cyber Monday is not surprisingly the busiest single day so far in 2012 accounting for 1.465 billion dollars alone. While Cyber Monday has catapulted itself forward as the prime shopping day on the Internet, retailers online have also been optimistic to the prospects for December 10th on a day deemed “Green Monday“.

Not related to environmentalism, Green Monday has historically been a steady time for brisk Internet Sales. Since e-commence relies heavily on package delivery, Green Monday coincides with the latest possible time that an item ordered as a Christmas gift can arrive on December 24th or earlier. While the increased use of higher speed shipping by some retailers provides an extension into perhaps deeper periods, Green Monday is still seen as a safe zone for online ordering. In fact, Green Monday registered as the biggest shopping day online in 2005 and 2007. Consistently a top-five spending day, Green Monday exceeded the one billion dollar plateau last year.

There had been a cautionary note to the robust online consumer spending stated by comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni. Despite posting three consecutive billion-dollar spending days and five in excess of $950 million, this past week saw a noticeable softening in e-commence momentum as growth rates dipped into single-digits after beginning the season in the mid-teens,". However, that note was also countered with optimism for December 10th's Green Monday. With Black Friday sales up over 17 percent this year, expectations for Green Monday has the day mirroring the positive economic results.