Daily online sales broke the $1 billion mark ten times during the just concluded holiday season for the first time, propelled in part by a big gain in m-commerce as iPhone and iPad users tried out their gifts on Christmas Day, according to estimates released last week.
ComScore reported that retail e-commerce spending for the entire November – December 2011 holiday season reached $37.2 billion, marking a 15 percent increase versus last year and an all-time record for the season. Ten individual shopping days this season surpassed $1 billion in spending, led by Cyber Monday – which ranked #1 for the second consecutive year – at $1.25 billion.
“Consumers were especially attracted to the deals and discounts available through digital channels – particularly free shipping, which occurred on well over half of transactions this season,” said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni. The report supports predictions that many retailers took a big hit on margins during the season.
IBM Coremetrics Benchmark report estimates online sales rose sharply on Christmas Day as well as on the day after Christmas. Dubbed “Mega-Monday” by many retailers because Dec. 26 fell on Monday this year, IBM officials said online sales grew 27.8 percent over Dec. 26, 2010 levels.
Moreover, mobile traffic rose significantly. IBM said 16.4 percent of all online sessions on retailers' sites were initiated from a mobile device on Dec. 26, up from 7.8 percent on this day in 2010. Sales from mobile devices grew 164.9 percent from the same period in 2010 – from 4.3 percent in 2010 for Dec. 26, 2010, to 11.3 percent in 2011.
The iPad led all mobile-device traffic, at 6 percent on Dec. 26, 2011, followed by iPhone, at 5.8 percent, and Android, at 4.6 percent.
