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New York – Deep
discounts, free shipping and extended holiday promotions proved to be an
unbeatable combination for online retailers, who took in more than $13.5
billion over Thanksgiving weekend.
e-tailers netted more
than $1 billion on Cyber Monday alone, up 16 percent from last year, market
research firm ComScore reported, representing the heaviest online spending day
in history.
Sales were up 9
percent on Black Friday, to $886 million, although Thanksgiving Day saw the
largest increase in online purchases, with sales soaring 28 percent year over year
to $407 million.
Cyber Monday’s
record-breaking take was driven primarily by an increase in average spending
per buyer (up 12 percent), while the number of shoppers grew by a more modest 4
percent, to 9 million customers. Average spending per transaction grew 10
percent to $60.05, while the total number of transactions increased 6 percent
to 17.1 million, ComScore said.
Sales and traffic
reports from online retailers reflected ComScore’s tallies. Walmart.com said
traffic increased about 30 percent on Black Friday over last year, and rocketed
nearly 50 percent on Thanksgiving Day.
For online-only
retailer Buy.com, Cyber Monday proved to be its single-biggest day in company
history, with sales up 48 percent year over year as of 5:00 p.m. PST on
Nov. 29. The e-tailer also enjoyed its best Black Friday ever with net sales up
45 percent, driven by a better than 100 percent increase in purchases through
third-party sellers.
E-tail also led the charge for multi-channel
retailer ShopNBC. Total company sales rose 36 percent on Cyber Monday while
online sales surged 59 percent to comprise 56 percent of net revenue, up from
48 percent last year.
Similarly,
ShopNBC’s total Black Friday sales rose 12 percent over last year, driven by a
54 percent increase in online sales. E-commerce comprised 51 percent of net
sales that day, up from 37 percent last year and 40.5 percent during the third
quarter.
“ShopNBC’s focus
on highlighting the benefit of online shopping continued to resonate with the
consumer,” said Keith Stewart, ShopNBC CEO. He noted that video game consoles,
big-screen TVs and GPS devices were some of the principal categories that drew
customers.
AT&T similarly saw record online traffic
on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, which contributed to one of the busiest post-Thanksgiving
shopping weekends in company history.
Traffic at att.com
was up 14 percent on Black Friday and more than 22 percent on Cyber Monday,
driven by “compelling deals” and shop-at-home convenience. Traffic was also up
significantly in the carrier’s brick-and-mortar stores, drawn by device
upgrades and U-verse TV sales, the company said.
“More consumers
want the convenience of shopping online — this has been a trend building over
the last several years and [was] why we offered such a robust line-up of deals to
kick off the holiday season,” said ATT.com VP Phil Bienert.
Separately,
Target’s Thanksgiving weekend sales may have exceeded expectations, with brisk
sales of discounted electronics pushing November same-store sales up as much as
6 percent, compared to earlier high-end estimates of 4 percent.
According to
reports by Cleveland Research and Bloomberg, discounts on flat panel TVs and
strong sales of iPods and Nikon Coolpix cameras helped drive holiday business.
Target and other
national chain stores will report their November sales results tomorrow.
