(mCommerce, from here)
Cyber Monday, the Monday after Thanksgiving weekend when Americans are supposed to spend lots of money online, didn't disappoint this year. Online sales increased by 22% from the same day in 2010 to a total of $1.25BN. Average basket size was up by 3% to $198 but total transactions were down.
Three days earlier, on Black Friday, when people go to shops to take advantage of Thanksgiving offers, total retail sales reached $11.4BN, the biggest single-day take in history and up 9% on 2010. Online sales accounted for $816M of this total, or 7.2%. The increase in online sales over 2010 was 26%.
- although online sales are already eye-wateringly big, they still represent a relatively small proportion of total retail sales
- the fact that the online share of the total is growing much faster than the total itself suggests that online's share of total sales will continue to grow for some time
- as big online retailers expand into ever more markets, sales are consolidating. People are spending more but with fewer retailers.
So although I expect to see more growth in ecommerce, sales will continue to consolidate into fewer retailers. In one sense therefore the sector is maturing. But the ways people are accessing online stores will continue to develop for some time.
mobile
Mcommerce finally started delivering on its promise in 2011. More than one in 10 people used a mobile device (phone or tablet) to visit retailer websites, and 6.6% of all Cyber Monday purchases happened via mobile, nearly three times the volume of 2010 mobile sales. Interestingly, both traffic and sales from mobile were higher on Black Friday, suggesting that people were checking things out in store and then buying via mobile to take advantage of lower online prices and ubiquitous Thanksgiving free shipping. It's very easy to do this if you have Amazon Flow on your iPhone.
social
Social commerce is the new kid on the block still. 86% of all social media traffic came from Facebook - what you'd expect in the US - but shoppers referred from social sites accounted for only half a percent of sales on both Cyber Monday and Black Friday. Expect this number to be much, much higher next year.
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