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Ecommerce never takes a vacation, even in summer. That’s why it’s actually time to start thinking about the holiday season. According to the National Retail Federation, 40% of consumers start their holiday shopping by Halloween. You may recall our Christmas in July blog post from two years ago when we offered 30 stats on holiday eCommerce. These stats have now been updated with data from the 2015 holiday season. This new information provides great insight into the tips and trends your business needs this year.

The following statistics have been compiled from Practical Ecommerce, Custora, and Kenshoo.

General holiday season
eCommerce revenue in the US increased by 12%

Unsurprisingly, the top two shopping days were Black Friday and Cyber Monday

Throughout the holiday season, just over 30% of online purchases were made on mobile

Mobile share of impressions, clicks, conversions, and revenue all increased

Mobile share of clicks increased by 15%

Shopping campaign impressions increased by 11% on desktop and 19% on mobile

Digital marketing spending increased between November 1st and December 25^th

Spending on mobile product ads increased over 110%

Search advertiser sales revenue increased by 15%

Combined, e-mail and direct marketing channels accounted for nearly 40% of online sales

Social media drove only 1.8% of sales

Of all the Facebook ads, Dynamic Product Ads resulted in the highest average order size and ROI

Thanksgiving
On Thanksgiving Day, sales in physical stores went from over $2 billion in 2014 to $1.8 billion in 2015

Online spending increased an incredible 25% to $1.73 billion

The average order value on Thanksgiving increased 9% to $162

Mobile actually beat desktop shopping on this day with a 57% share

On this day, mobile resulted in $639 million in sales – that’s a record!

Black Friday
Black Friday sales in physical stores decreased

Black Friday online sales revenue totaled $2.74 billion, up 14.3%

Online orders increased 15.6%

36% of sales on Black Friday were made on mobile

Mobile sales accounted for $905 million in revenue

Of those mobile sales, over 77% came from Apple devices

The email marketing channel drove the most online sales at 25%

Cyber Monday
Compared to last year, Cyber Monday online revenue increased 16.2% and orders increased 14.7%

27% of online sales were made on mobile

Of those online mobile sales, 76% came from Apple devices

The week leading up to Cyber Monday saw increased sales, effectively turning Cyber Monday into Cyber Week.

At twice the usual rate, record numbers of items were out-of-stock on Cyber Monday

 

As we look ahead to the 2016 season, remember that online and mobile sales have been on the rise. Your mobile site needs to be responsive to meet the demand. For tips on improving your mobile experience, check out our blog post. The number of orders and average order value is up, so evaluate your inventory to avoid being out-of-stock. Also, you may want to consider optimizing email marketing, as this was the most successful channel in 2015. The time to prepare for holiday sales is now, so contact ParadoxLabs today!