comScore reported holiday season US retail e-commerce spending from desktop computers for the first 34 days of the November-December 2016 holiday season to date: $38.0 billion has been spent online, marking a 12-percent increase versus the corresponding days last year.
Cyber Week, the week beginning with Cyber Monday, posted strong growth online, raking in $11.0 billion in desktop spending for an increase of 13 percent compared to the same week last year. This marked the first time ever that a full Monday through Sunday week boasted the accomplishment of having all seven days surpass a billion dollars in spending, while both Cyber Monday and the Tuesday following it eclipsed $2 billion in desktop sales.
These seven days continued an even longer stretch beginning on Thanksgiving of eleven consecutive billion-dollar desktop spending days, marking the longest streak of days reaching that milestone in history. Also noteworthy is that sales growth has picked up significantly since Thanksgiving, with online spending on desktop up a strong 14-percent year-over-year, compared to an increase of 11 percent for the period of November that preceded Thanksgiving.
“Online holiday commerce continues to perform very well through the week following Cyber Monday. We’re seeing billion-dollar shopping days become the new norm, with eleven consecutive days eclipsing that milestone on desktop – a trend we expect to continue through the current week and beyond,” said comScore CEO Gian Fulgoni.
Recently compiled mobile commerce data for key shopping days highlights the channel’s increasing importance in driving digital commerce. Mobile buying on smartphones and tablets accounted for $597 million of spending on Thanksgiving (up 26 percent year-over-year), $797 million on Black Friday (up 41 percent) and more than $1 billion on Cyber Monday (up 29 percent). The success of mobile drove total digital spending growth to surpass 20 percent on all three days, while Cyber Monday 2016 solidified itself as the largest spending day on record with an astounding $3.7 billion in total digital commerce.
Fulgoni added, “The key shopping days of Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday all experienced strong growth rates of buying using mobile devices, giving a boost to total digital sales, with mobile accounting for more than a quarter of online spending on those days. While mobile continues to have more friction points and therefore lower conversion than desktop, it’s clear that many consumers are becoming increasingly comfortable transacting over these devices.”
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