Monday, December 01, 2014

Online Sales Set Black Friday Record

This year, mobile and international online sales drove online business on Black Friday to a new record level. 

E-commerce sales surpassed $2 billion for the first time this Black Friday. Data from Adobe Digital Index tracked over 350 million visits to 4,500 retail websites. We saw a 25% increase from last year in online sales to this year's $2.4 billion daily sale. Adobe projects that Cyber Monday sales will reach $2.6 billion in total.

Data suggested that instead of the peak in online shopping around 6pm on Thanksgiving Day as seen previously, this year's spike in transactions happened at 11am, preempting the day's main meal. On Thanksgiving day, 27% of the transactions came from smartphones, almost 2x the amount last year. The large number of promotions sent out on Thanksgiving day might have contributed to the changes in shopping behavior and pattern this year.

Online promotions were offered by retailers across the board, but were driven by Amazon, Walmart, and Target, as they battle for supremacy in e-tailing.

At Gilt, sales activity from Thanksgiving and Black Friday promotions saw a significant lift outside the U.S., according to Michelle Peluso, the company’s chief executive officer. In addition to Black Friday becoming a record sales day for the flash-sale site — it outpaced last year’s Black Friday by 20 percent — international revenue comprised north of 20 percent of total revenue for the day. Typically, global sales make up 12 to 13 percent of sales. Mobile sales also continued to climb at Gilt. Last year, mobile made up about 40 percent of sales for Black Friday, while this year it was closer to 45 percent.

The Custora E-commerce Pulse, which tracked more than 100 million online shoppers, 100 U.S. retailers and more than $40 billion in e-commerce revenue, said mobile shopping grew to almost one-third of all online purchases this Black Friday. In 2013, just 22.5 percent of sales were placed on smartphones and tablets, with that number rising to 30.3 percent this year. Data also showed that e-mail marketing drove the most online sales for the day, fueling 27.3 percent of sales. Social Media drove only 1.7 percent of sales.

Source: wwd.com

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