Cyber Monday Traffic, Mobile & Ad Spend All Up on $1.46 Billion Shopping Day

Overall, Cyber Monday has proven the greatest online retail day in history, with paid search spend, site traffic, mobile traffic and total revenue all showing healthy growth. Learn more from comScore, Marin Software, IBM, Kenshoo and others.

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November 28, 2012 Categories

Each holiday, it gets more difficult to decipher the various reports we receive, as more and more companies share their insights. Research and e-commerce companies give us a glimpse at the greater picture, though they do so through analysis of the data to which they have access. As a result, their figures often differ.

Does this mean one is “more correct” than another? No. It means that viewing the collection as a whole, rather than relying on any one source in particular, can give a clearer idea of which channels, strategies, and tactics were most successful over the given period of time.

For more information on the methodology, sample size or data used by any one company, please click through to read their full report (where available). Here are the highlights from each:

comScore – $1.46 Billion Revenue Makes Cyber Monday 2012 Heaviest U.S. Online Spending Day in History

Cyber Monday reached $1.465 billion in online spending, up 17 percent versus 2011, representing the heaviest online spending day in history and the second day this season (in addition to Black Friday) to surpass $1 billion in sales, according to comScore.

Other findings from comScore:

Marin Software – The Holiday Creep*

“Retailers are not only investing more dollars online, but they are doing it earlier in the consumer buying cycle,” said Matt Lawson, Vice President of Marketing at Marin Software. “Consumers increasingly rely on online alerts, ads and reviews to inform their buying decisions and advertisers are looking to keep ahead, especially during the critical holiday season.”

Marin found that:

*Marin helpfully pointed out in their blog post outlining these insights, “The ‘creep’ as it’s used in this blog post is in relation to “spreading” or “growing” – not the “creep” you may encounter at your company holiday party.” For that clarification, we thank them.

Experian Hitwise: Cyber Monday a Banner Day for Top 500 Retail Sites

Online traffic on Cyber Monday increased 11 percent YoY, as the top 500 retail sites received more than 206.8 million total US visits. So far this past holiday week of online traffic from Thanksgiving Day to Cyber Monday to retail sites is up 8 percent for 2012 vs. 2011, wrote Experian’s Matt Tatham. Other highlights from their research:

IBM Holiday Benchmark Cyber Monday Infographic

On Cyber Monday more than 18 percent of consumers used a mobile device to visit a retailer’s site, an increase of more than 70 percent over 2011, according to IBM. Mobile sales reached close to 13 percent, an increase of more than 96 percent over 2011. Other findings from their Holiday Benchmark Cyber Monday report:

Akamai – Cyber Monday 9pm Purchasing Peak 104 Percent Higher Than Black Friday

“Early browsing behaviors mirrored those of Black Friday quite closely. The only clear difference is that consumers chose sleep over shopping, as illustrated by the 25 percent decrease in browsing activities at 12AM,” wrote Akamai’s Elyssa Duboys. “Additionally, average page views dropped from 14.1 to 11, a decrease of 22 percent early Monday morning (12AM -4AM).”

They also found:

PM Digital – More Searchers Does Not Translate to Sales Boost

Product Listing Ads (PLAs) were a big component of performance this year, according to PM Digital.

“Brands selling direct to consumer saw their trademark CPCs rise significantly, as click throughs were diverted from their trademark search ads to the image-pleasing PL ads shown right on the search results page run by their retail partners,” they told SEW. “PLA spend made up 10 percent of the search spend, and advertisers who ran on PLAs last year saw 100 percent YOY growth on those ad placements.”

They found that:

Kenshoo – Cyber Monday Sees Aggressive Growth in Clicks and Impressions

“Shopping continues to migrate online, and U.S retailers saw their biggest fluctuations of the season to date on what most now consider to be the biggest days for online shopping: Thanksgiving Day and Cyber Monday,” said Aaron Goldman, Kenshoo CMO. They found that:

Cyber Monday Paves the Way for Great 2012 Holiday Season for Online Retailers

“Despite some news reports suggesting that Cyber Monday might be declining in importance, the day has once again set an online spending record at nearly $1.5 billion,” said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni. “However, it is also clear that the holiday promotional period has begun even earlier this year, with strong online sales occurring on Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday. Now, we shall see the extent to which continuing and attractive retailer promotions are able to boost sales for the remainder of the week.”

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