Holiday season sees big boosts in ecommerce spending
There was much speculation leading up to the 2012 holiday shopping season, as retailers were not sure how American consumers would spend during the last part of the year. This was due to a variety of factors, including the presidential election, fiscal cliff negotiations and the ongoing recovery of the economy. However, one thing's for sure when it comes to holiday shopping in 2012 – customers took to the internet in large numbers to purchase products for the gift-giving season.
Billions spent online in November, December
According to a recent report from comScore, throughout November and December, approximately $42.3 billion was spent on ecommerce purchases. This represents a 14 percent increase from last year's holiday shopping months. The study revealed there were several days of significant spending, including Cyber Monday, which brought in 1.4 billion worth of products and other items brought through the internet. This turned out to be the largest ever spending day for ecommerce. The second biggest day for web purchases was December 10, also known as Green Monday. More than 1.2 billion was bought online throughout the day, comScore found. However, the total amounts for ecommerce holiday shopping did not meet expectations, as analysts were anticipating slightly higher sales.
"The 2012 online holiday season was once again a very strong season with growth rates in the mid-teens as we reached record-setting spending levels," said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni. "This year's growth rate is essentially on a par with last year's. But despite many positives for the online sector, this year's season did not quite perform up to our initial expectation for growth rates in excess of 16 percent as we fell a billion dollars short of our expected total of$43.4 billion."
Mobile played big role during holidays
One element that helped boost online holiday sales was mobile purchasing. A study by Adobe Systems revealed that on Cyber Monday, 22 percent of purchases were made through mobile devices, Internet Retailer reports. This was more than double the amount of mobile transactions that were completed at the same time last year. Additionally, Bizrate Insights and Forrester Research found that 25 percent of products bought on the internet during the Thanksgiving weekend were done through mobile devices.
