All those people coming back to work on Monday after the long Thanksgiving weekend and firing up their computers linked to high-speed data lines fueled the real start of the online holiday shopping season, comScore Networks Inc. reported today.
With $156 million in online retail sales for the day, Monday was the second highest shopping day of the year, topped only by Nov. 15, which was 3% higher. An average Monday sees online retail sales of $87 million. The Friday after Thanksgiving had sales of $103 million and the Saturday-Sunday weekend had retail sales of $157 million.
"While the Friday following Thanksgiving is traditionally the day to watch
in the offline world, it's the following Monday -- when people return to
work and are able to use their companies’ high speed Internet connections --
that really waves the starting flag for holiday e-commerce,” said Dan Hess, comScore vice president.
Including online travel sales, Monday’s spending volume was $220 million.
Computer hardware and consumer electronics are clearly among the major gifts again this year. While those products usually account for about 20% of online spending, they leapt to 33% of online spending Monday. Computer sales grew 164% compared to an average Monday and 76% compared to last Friday. Consumer electronics grew 133% vs. the average Monday and 19% vs. last Friday.
Other gift categories posted huge increases vs. an average Monday and vs. the Friday after Thanksgiving: jewelry and watches, 248%, 83%; movies/video, 272%, 120%; music, 109%, 53%; toys, 314%; 2%; apparel, 76%, 58%.
ComScore bases its estimates on the purchase activity of a representative cross section of over 1.5 million Internet users who have given comScore permission to monitor their browsing and buying behavior.
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