GSI Commerce Inc. said consumers across the more than 100 websites it manages placed 789 orders during the peak minute on Cyber Monday 60% more than 2008. Cyber Monday (Nov. 30) was GSI’s single highest day for online sales for the five-day Thanksgiving weekend, followed by Black Friday (Nov. 27), Sunday (Nov. 29), Thanksgiving Day (Nov. 26) and Saturday (Nov. 28).
“Shoppers that visited a GSI Commerce-run web store from Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday found an array of the most-sought after holiday products, terrific promotions, and a fun, easy and engaging consumer experience,” said Fiona Dias, executive vice president of strategy and marketing for GSI. “Our clients rely on GSI to deliver an industry-leading suite of products and services to help them maximize their online business. We’re proud to have delivered successfully for our clients and their consumers during this key five-day period.”
GSI operates more than 100 web stores globally for retailers and brands. and saw record-breaking consumer traffic along its 795 million page views. Collectively, the uptime of GSI’s web stores was 99.95%.
On Cyber Monday an average of 11-12 items per second were packaged across GSI’s fulfillment network. Despite this heavy volume, ShipQuikSM, GSI’s comprehensive, proprietary package-delivery program is expected to deliver holiday gifts to shoppers’ doors in an average of 2.3 days in December.
GSI also noted that consumers also flocked to GSI web stores in much higher numbers in Black Friday's early morning hours (between midnight and 6 am) than in years past.
“Rather than waking up early and fighting crowds in stores, shoppers knew they could find the same Black Friday deals online as early as Thanksgiving day, without having to spend money on gas or take time away from their families,” said Dias. “Previously, only a few retailers promoted Thanksgiving day deals. This year, the trend was quite different with many online retailers touting sales on Thanksgiving Day.”
“Consumers are embracing the idea that shopping online is the way to go,” said Dias. “Consumer behavior has changed with many people shopping whenever it’s most convenient for them. On Cyber Monday, we saw consumers hit the one day sales with passion, starting early in the morning and continuing all the way through the end of the night.”
Shoppers also responded positively to the widespread availability of online promotional shipping offers. Many GSI sites offered free shipping on purchases which contributed to record-breaking sales for those retailers over the weekend.
“Great shipping offers are a cost of entry for online retailers, and our sites are experiencing remarkable success with their offers this year,” said Dias. “Industry surveys tell us that more than one-half of all e-commerce sites will provide free shipping this year, and we're seeing that consumers respond well when it’s available to them.”
E-mail offers also attracted this year's shoppers. e-Dialog, GSI’s award-winning e-mail subsidiary, sent 481 million e-mails over the five-day period, up 62 percent over the same period last year. Revenue growth derived from e-mail for GSI clients using e-Dialog’s e-mail service increased 114 percent, including comparable store growth and growth from new clients.
“Consumers love it when relevant information is delivered right to their e-mail box, and they can head straight to the merchandise they want, with just a click,” said Dias. “This year more than ever, retailers have relied on e-mail because of tremendous success garnered with targeted, tailored e-mail communication with their customers.”
Private sale sites reflected another success story this Thanksgiving weekend. Rue La La, a GSI-owned, invitation-only private sale site for premier brands, saw a more than three-fold increase in the number of orders placed for the five-day period compared to the same period last year. Rue La La members were ready and excited to shop on Cyber Monday with the first hour of the private sale event that launched at 11:00 a.m. resulting in a record-breaking number of visitors since the site launched in April, 2008.
An item growing in popularity is customized, design-your-own professional sports merchandise where fans can personalize items to reflect their favorite teams and players. Over the five-day Thanksgiving weekend consumers ordered 57,500 customized items from the GSI-enabled sporting league web stores, a 96 percent increase over last year. GSI has e-commerce agreements to operate the online stores for major professional sports leagues in the United States, including the NFL, Major League Baseball, the NHL, the NBA, NASCAR and Major League Soccer.
“We’re thrilled with how we were able to support our clients from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday,” said Michael G. Rubin, chairman, president and CEO of GSI. “As an innovative global e-commerce platform capable of managing all aspects of online sales and interactive marketing for leading retailers and consumer brands, we were successful at delivering a great consumer experience on behalf of our clients.”
