Whether due to snowstorms, mall-madness phobia, e-deals, or an improved shopping experience, e-commerce delivered what many saw as surprisingly strong results this past holiday season. According to Coremetrics, online retail sales jumped 13.6 percent from Black Friday to Christmas Eve.
Coremetrics said the gains were helped by online discounts throughout the season as well as one extra day of shopping during the season.
Said John Squire, chief strategy officer at Coremetrics, "This year, we saw retailers break tradition by turning Black Friday from a one-day event into a month-long event with 'screen busters' in addition to door busters."
At the same time, SpendingPulse, part of MasterCard, said e-commerce sales vaulting 15.5 percent from Nov. 1 to Dec. 24 - the biggest holiday gain among channels. Since Black Friday, e-commerce sales jumped 18 percent. Besides the extra shopping day, SpendingPulse, which largely bases its data on credit card payments, said that several major winter storms disrupted traffic to brick and mortar locations and seemed to benefit online shopping.
More measured but still healthy results came from comScore, which indicated online sales from the beginning of November through Dec. 20 totaled $25.5 billion, up 4 percent from 2008. In addition to the snowstorms, the online-tracking agency said aggressive late-season promotions by retailers with promises of Christmas-delivery appeared to have paid off.
Don Davis, writing for Internet Retailer, noted how savvy online shoppers appeared to seek out deeper discounts and more free shipping breaks this holiday season. Other online behaviors he pointed to included earlier online holiday shopping on Thanksgiving weekend, the influence of social networks driving purchasing decisions, and share gains by larger e-commerce players.
For just the month of November, online sales among the top 25 retailers grew 13 percent compared with a decline of 10 percent among small and midsize retailers, according to comScore.
"It’s pretty clear that the larger, established retailers have an overall competitive advantage during a recession,” said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni in a statement. “Not only are they better equipped to meet the price demands of cash-strapped consumers, but they are also able to maintain their marketing investments and gain consumer mindshare.”
Discussion Questions: What lessons should online and multi-channel retailers be taking away from this holiday season? What shopping behaviors and site advancements have done the most to reshape online shopping in 2009? Are larger e-commerce players demonstrating a sizeable advantage over smaller players?
- Web Sales Show Big Rise Throughout Holiday Buying Season- The Wall Street Journal
- SpendingPulse 2009 Holiday Wrap-Up Report: A Stronger December Caps a Stabilizing Retail Environment as Sectors Show Positive Year-Over-Year Growth Since Black Friday - MasterCard Advisors
- comScore Media Metrix Ranks Top Growing Properties and Site Categories for November 2009 - comscore.com
- Wintry Weekend Boosts Online Holiday Sales in Final Shopping Weekend of the Season - comScore
- Web Trumps Stores - Internet Retailer
- Most Recent Week of Online Holiday Shopping Season Achieves Above Average Growth as Three Individual Days Surpass $800 Million in Spending - comScore