Here comes online shopping’s busiest day—Monday—or Tuesday
Get ready for the busiest online shopping day Monday—or Tuesday.
A couple of reports by companies that track online shopping say the busiest online shopping day of the year will be next week—Monday, says one; Tuesday, says the other. Or maybe it was last Monday.
Online marketing company Performics, a division of DoubleClick Digital Advertising Solutions, picks Monday the 12th or Monday the 5th. The four Mondays between Thanksgiving and Christmas are the peak volume days during the holiday online shopping season, Performics says. The second and third Mondays consistently generate the highest volumes. “Therefore, Dec. 5 and Dec. 12 are likely to be the largest sales volume days of the 2005 holiday season,” Performics says.
Because Christmas falls on a Sunday this year, Dec. 19 could also be a big day, as there will still be plenty of time for gifts to arrive before Christmas. "These trends provide marketers with the foresight to anticipate peaks in sales volume and prepare accordingly," said Chris Henger, vice president of marketing and product development at Performics. "Online retailers can make more specific predictions by considering their product mix."
So far this year, online sales are strongly above last year’s, Performics reports. It says sales the day after Thanksgiving were 33% above last year’s; that Monday, sales were up 39% over last year; and this past Monday, they were up 35% over the previous year.
Performics obtains its data by tracking e-commerce sales volume in conjunction with the management of affiliate and search engine marketing programs for more than 300 advertisers
ScanAlert, provider of HackerSafe certification services, says shopping will peak on Tuesday, specifically between noon and 1 p.m. Eastern time and continue strong for the next two hours. ScanAlert obtains its data by monitoring performance at the 65,000 sites that use its service. It says its projection is based on three years of data. “ScanAlert`s data shows that online shopping throughout the year historically starts the week strong on Mondays and then peaks on Tuesdays between noon and 3 pm EST, confirming the widespread practice of broadband shopping from work,” ScanAlert says. “The peak follows the sun west to California and then dips to a low on Sunday.”
Last year’s peak date was Tuesday, Dec. 14, ScanAlert says. ScanAlert reports that it served more Hacker Safe certification mark images on that day than at any other time last year. "Last year, Dec. 14 was the last Tuesday when online shoppers had enough time to receive their holiday purchases at regular shipping rates," said ScanAlert CEO Ken Leonard. "The corresponding Tuesday this year is Dec. 13, and we expect online business to peak that day for the same reason."
ScanAlert also reports a steady rise in online shopping since mid-November. The company saw a 2% increase in certification mark images served from Nov. 14 to 21, followed by a 22% increase the following week.
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