According to comScore Inc., online retail sales during the holidays were up 5% over the same period last year topping $4.7 billion. Among the biggest days was Cyber Monday when the sales reached over $885 million matching a 1-day record set last season. Surprisingly, the day AFTER Cyber-Monday ( Tuesday ) sales reached $886 million.
“We have now passed the halfway point of the season with the 4% growth in online spending to date slightly exceeding comScore’s forecast of an overall 3% growth rate for the entire season,” says comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni. “It will be interesting to see if the encouraging growth continues as we head into the busiest days of the season. Nonetheless, I do expect that we will see the industry’s first $900 million online spending day during this next critical week of the season.”
Those with the distinctive competitive advantage were the larger, more established retailers. Larger retailers were more equipped to offer considerable discounts in an economy where price was a major determining factor.
The other hot holiday choice for consumers this year was “Free Shipping”. 44% of those purchases during the final weeks before/after Christmas included some kind of shipping offer which as up 40% over 2008. Consumers clearly recognize “shipping” as a major deciding factor when choosing to spend money online. In fact, during the week of Thanksgiving, 50% of the purchases included a shipping offer.
If you are a retailer consider the following: “The average value of orders that include free shipping is 15% higher than for orders without shipping offers.” This suggests that retailers are convincing customers to buy more to meet thresholds for free shipping.
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Tom Angley Pete Allen Dick Adkins Fred Applegate Walter Zink Walter Anderson