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When it comes to planning for the holidays, you can often predict the upcoming season based on statistics from previous years. Since the numbers for 2014’s Cyber Five are still coming, we’ll start with some insights from 2013.

In an article on Momentology, you can find a wealth of information that puts an important resource at your fingertips. Here are just a few of the highlights regarding 2013:

1. There was $766 million in online sales on Thanksgiving Day 2013, up 21% from 2012
2. More consumers shopped on Thanksgiving Day last year as well (44.8 million), an increase of 27% over 2012
3. Black Friday 2013 set a record with $1.512 billion in online sales
4. Of this total, desktop consumers accounted for $1.198 billion of it, up 15% from 2012
5. Mobile users accounted for 21% of the total spending on Black Friday in 2013, totaling $314 million
6. The Average Order Value (AOV) on Black Friday was $135.27, a 2.2% increase from 2012
7. Smartphone users accounted for 24.9% of all online traffic on Black Friday and 7.2% of all sales with an AOV of $115.63
8. Tablet users accounted for 14.2% of all online traffic on Black Friday and 14.4% of all sales with an AOV of $132.75
9. Pinterest beat Facebook on Black Friday in 2013 with an AOV of $92.51 compared to Facebook’s $52.30
10. 92.1 million consumers shopped on Black Friday in 2013 with online sales peaking at 9:05 a.m. PT
11. In 2013, the average consumer had completed 45% of their holiday shopping prior to Cyber Monday
12. Cyber Monday 2013 was the largest day of U.S. online spending, totaling $2.085 billion
13. Desktop users accounted for $1.735 billion of this, an increase of 18% over 2012
14. Mobile users spent $350 million on Cyber Monday 2013, accounting for 17% of total spending
15. Cyber Monday’s AOV was $128.77 in 2013, a 1.1% decrease from 2012
16. Tablets drove 11.5% of all online traffic on Cyber Monday, accounting for 11.7% of all sales with an AOV of $126.30
17. Smartphones drove 19.7% of all online traffic, accounting for 5.5% of all sales on Cyber Monday 2013 with an AOV of $106.49
18. On Cyber Monday, Facebook beat out Pinterest with an AOV for referred shoppers of $97.81 compared to Pinterest’s $92.40

As for 2014 so far, the following statistics were pulled together in an article on Practical Ecommerce:

19. U.S. online sales in 2014 showed a 14.3% increase over 2013 on Thanksgiving
20. Thanksgiving Day 2014 was Wal-Mart’s second-highest day of online sales – ever. It was topped only by Cyber Monday 2013
21. AOVs for combined desktop and mobile online sales were down 1.8% from last year
22. But, the average number of products increased around 16.2% to hover around 4.3 products
23. Health and beauty product sales rose 55% over 2013’s numbers
24. Apparel sales rose 36.7%
25. 52.1% of all U.S. traffic on Thanksgiving Day happened on mobile devices, a 22.4% increase from 2013
26. Of U.S. online sales, 32.3% originated from a mobile device, up 25.4% over Thanksgiving Day last year
27. Smartphone drive over double that of tablets in traffic (36.4% vs 15.4%), but tablets accounted for more sales (17.9% vs 14.4% from smartphones)
28. 47.6% of all U.S. online ecommerce traffic and 67.6% of the sales on Thanksgiving Day happened on laptops & desktop PCs
29. PC users spent more, with an average order value of $132.48, whereas AOV on mobile was around $112.69
30. Facebook beat out Pinterest on the social side with an AOV of $107.73 compared to Pinterest’s AOV of $95.24

When thinking about preparing for the 2015 holiday season, be sure to keep three things in mind:

1. Your site needs to be responsive. Mobile usage is increasing; even if mobile users don’t buy from you on their mobile device, you can bet they’re researching your product and making the purchase later on their laptop or desktop.
2. Social is a very helpful and underused channel for holiday ecommerce.
3. More consumers aren’t waiting for Black Friday or Cyber Monday to start their shopping. Their research, too, is starting far earlier.

Keep your eyes and ears open for the rest of this season’s numbers. We’ll see you in 2015!