U.S shoppers have been taking part in a clicking frenzy with online sales jumping during Black Friday and Cyber Monday, key shopping days following the Thanksgiving holiday.
comScore reported U.S retail e-commerce spending during Black Friday surpassed the US$1 billion mark for the first time, representing a 26 per cent increase from Black Friday 2011. Thanksgiving Day (November 22), while traditionally a lighter day for online holiday spending, achieved a strong 32 per cent increase to US$633 million.
“Despite the frenzy of media coverage surrounding the importance of Black Friday in the brick-and-mortar world, we continue to see this shopping day become more and more prominent in the e-commerce channel – particularly among those who prefer to avoid crowds at the stores,” Gian Fulgoni, comScore chairman, said.
“With Black Friday online sales up 26 per cent and surpassing $1 billion for the first time, coupled with early reports indicating that Black Friday sales in retail stores were down 1.8 per cent, we can now confidently call it a multi-channel marketing phenomenon.
“Meanwhile, Thanksgiving Day – which has historically been a lighter online holiday shopping day – continues to gain steam and grew well ahead of the current pace as more consumers opted to kick off their holiday shopping immediately after the big meal to take advantage of aggressive retailer promotions.”
Amazon ranked number one on the list of the most visited online retailer on Black Friday. It saw 57.3 million Americans visit the site, which is an 18 per cent increased compared to a year ago. This was followed closely by Walmart, Best Buy, Target and Apple.
Cyber Monday appears to be no different. Early results from IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark report indicate Cyber Monday 2012 will be the biggest yet with sales already up 24.1 per cent from last year.
“Cyber Monday 2012 will be a banner day for online sales, which are up 24.1 percent for this same time period over Cyber Monday 2011,” IBM wrote on its Digital Analytics Benchmark blog.
The report also shows close to 11 per cent of consumers are using their mobile device to make a purchase.
“Apple continue to be a big winner with the iPhone driving more retail shopping than any other device with traffic reaching 8.3 percent versus 6.7 percent and 5.9 percent for iPad and Android respectively,” IBM said.
But it’s not just American retailers reaping the benefits of the holiday season. A week after Click Frenzy, fellow Australian retailers, such as Westfield, The Iconic, Forever New and David Jones participated in Vogue’s Christmas Online Shopping Night on Monday 26, which coincided with the U.S’ Cyber Monday.