Cyber Monday Closes as Top Online Shopping Day in US History
Based on Adobe Analytics data, a record $7.9 billion was spent online by the end of Cyber Monday, an increase of 19.3 percent year-over-year, making it the largest online shopping day in U.S. history, easily eclipsing last year’s $6.6 billion record. Mobile transactions soared with $2.2 billion of Cyber Monday sales coming from smartphones alone, representing the highest ever YoY growth of 55.6 percent, and the first time ever that over half of visits (54.3 percent) came from mobile devices. Consistent with shopping trends to-date, Cyber Monday saw a significant spike in buy online, pick up in-store (BOPIS), with an increase of 65 percent YoY, a sign that retailer investments to bridge offline and online experiences are paying dividends.
Here's some more Cyber Monday data from Adobe Analytics:
- Consumers looking for televisions found an average discount of 18.9 percent off regular prices, while computers and toys are starting to see prices slowly returning to normal levels, 17.9 percent and 30.9 percent respectively.
- 2.3 percent of product page visits saw an out-of-stock message on Cyber Monday, up over a season average of 2.1 percent. This cost retailers up to $177 million in potential sales. In comparison, Thanksgiving Day saw 3.3 percent and Black Friday saw 2.8 percent, costing retailers up to $120 million and $177 million, respectively.
- On Cyber Monday, direct website traffic ranked highest for driving revenue at 25.9 percent share of sales (up 0.7 percent YoY), followed by paid search at 21.6 percent (up 6.2 percent YoY), organic search at 21.1 percent (down 5.3 percent), and email at 25.9 percent (up 2.0 percent). Similar to past years, social media continued to have minimal impact on online sales, at a 1.3 percent share.
Total Retail's Take: There a couple of themes to take away from Adobe's Cyber Monday data: one, consumers are using their phones to make purchases, not just to browse items and then purchase them in other channels (in-store, desktop). The growth in mobile sales on this shopping holiday reflects the fact that retailers have improved their mobile shopping experiences, making them faster, easier and more secure. That said, retailers can't take all the credit. I have to believe the growth in screen sizes for new Apple and Android smartphone devices is making it easier for consumers to shop on them, and thus more willing to make a purchase. Retailers are reaping the benefits from the shift to larger smartphones. The second trend is the growing popularity of BOPIS programs among consumers. Traditional retailers with expansive brick-and-mortar footprints need to figure out how to offer BOPIS to their customers, and if they're already doing so, they must enhance the experience so that it's as seamless as possible. BOPIS offers the best of both worlds — it connects online and offline shopping experiences, which customers want (instant gratification, don't have to pay shipping fees), and is a potential profit source for retailers (save on shipping costs, generate incremental purchases when they come to pick up their order in-store). It makes sense to invest in a BOPIS program today.
