Holiday shopping conversions rose 27% over rest of year, says DoubleClick
Online conversion rose 27% over the average rate of conversion the rest of the year during the five weeks leading into Christmas, when it was 4.6% versus the yearlong weekly average of 3.6%, according to benchmark data gathered by DoubleClick Inc.’s
analytic product, SiteAdvance.
The tool, which represents a pool of 88 million visitors, 121 million site visits, 8.6 million total shopping carts, 2.6 million purchased carts and $400 million in sales, also found that traffic surged, with the number of overall site visitors 88% higher during the holiday than the 2003 weekly average, and the number of site visits up 72% and page views up 116% over averages for the rest of the year. Online revenue was up 123% over the rest of the year.
While the web offered the option of hurried last-minute shopping, DoubleClick`s data showed it wasn’t the norm as more online shoppers took their time and researched purchases before buying. Visitors looked at an average of 11 pages during each session, a 24% increase from the 2003 average, and session length increased 10% to 5.44 minutes. Early-season shoppers carted products more frequently than those shopping later, and they purchased at higher rates, driving 66% of overall holiday revenue online. Early shoppers spent an average of 23% more time on their purchases than late-season shoppers.
The holiday season saw greater abandonment of carted products than during the rest of the year. For every dollar sold, more than $6 was abandoned in a shopping cart. Abandoned cart values were up 10% from the yearlong weekly average, representing a value of $412. Late-season shoppers were more likely to cart and abandon a product than those shopping early, with abandonment rates increasing 20% during the fourth week of December, due in part to higher shipping charges required to meet the holiday deadline, according to DoubleClick.
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