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M-Connect Media has analyzed the online sales figures and has come up with the statistical analysis which states that the number of online sales is still ticking high. November and December months bring in lots of sales whether it is online or offline for every business retailer. It has been noticed that there is a surge in the number of people taking to the online platform.
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Even after hitting a new high on Black Friday of $3.34 billion, shoppers are still up at gobbling up deals as they do not wish to miss out on the huge discounts that were declared on Cyber Monday. This shopping frenzy has taken the online shopping business to all-time record sales.
Insight into Statistics:
Statistics by Adobe Digital Insights showed that the sales have increased by a good 12.1% when compared to the previous year. This kind of uplift in the sales quelled all the concerns that the business owners had regarding consumers shifting or postponing their purchase to another time, the Thanksgiving week. It has been observed that there is indeed an insatiable capacity for the customers to scoop up the various online deals. This has brought about a great fillip in the slowdown that has been perceived in the money spending capacity around the election time.
Adobe’s figures have hit an all-time high, a milestone achieved by the company. It is anticipated that Black Friday would definitely make it to the top charts the forthcoming year. The data projected by Adobe comprises of 80% of transactions made online from top 100 US retailers.
Wal-Mart, Amazon, Target and Kohl’s broke their previous records over the stretch that kicked off Thanksgiving. The brick and mortar stores too outperformed in terms of their online sales. The footfalls in the physical stores however dipped by 1% as reported by ShopperTrak, both on Thanksgiving pretext and Black Friday pretext. That can be touted as a modest dip but it is acknowledged that people are allocating a significant spend of their budget to the online platform.
Point Reiterated by National Retail Federation:
Numbers and data revealed by the consumer survey conducted by National Retail Federation also reiterated the fact that their number of foot falls to the physical stores dipped and the number of hits to the online stores shot up. Selling season, a major part of it, is still ahead of a majority of them have not yet finished with their shopping.
This feature of online stores bringing in more revenue has sent the traditional retailers into a tizzy and they too have been pouring in a sizeable chunk of their business spend into eCommerce offerings. This may encompass having shopping applications for their business, enabling the stores to have pickups for the online orders that have been placed, have the right shipment procedures in place and then last but not the least, get the mobile payment facility enabled. All these strategies have brought in or rather introduced the traditional retailer to a whole new eCommerce performance.
Many stores do not wish to miss out on the goodness that different modes of operation have to offer. For instance, Target is making all the deals available both online and offline. Wal-Mart has started off with its sales for Cyber Monday well in advance on Black Friday. All the retailers have equipped themselves so as to help their shoppers navigate through the complete range of the offerings that the stores had.
Key observations:
- When one considers the retail eCommerce spending just on Cyber Monday 2016, it has reached a staggering $2.67 billion US dollars. The sales of Black Friday were 1,656 million US dollars in the year 2015 which shot up to 1,970 million US dollars in the year 2016. This is a significant 11.9% shoot up in the buying behavior that people engaged in. The total holiday weekend online spending hit a high of $5928 million US dollars.
- When we see how there is a change in the sales over the past few years, we can notice that the sales have almost tripled or quadrupled from the year 2008, on both the occasions, Thanksgiving and Black Friday. When we take the previous year into consideration, we can witness a significant increase in the percentage of sales that were recorded during both the occasions.
- This year saw a sharp rise in an increase of online orders placed through mobile devices. In figures, the rise is from 2015’s 40% to 2016”s 48%. The percentage this year is clearly indicative of the fact that close to half shoppers on the internet platform are doing it through their smartphones. It, therefore, becomes extremely imperative to have a highly responsive design without compromising on the resolution.
- People are always on the lookout to clinch their buys at the best possible prices. Black Friday is no exception to that. There are the eager deal hunters who will go their way all out to get their hands on the best possible product. A keener looks into the survey conducted by Statists Thanksgiving and Holiday Survey this year elucidated on the very fact in the Black Friday Impulse buys segment.What is the percentage of the segment that made an impulse purchase whenever they saw a very attractive offer? Clothing, textiles and shoes segment occupied a whopping 43% closely followed by consumer electronics, media, video and audio with a significant 34%. A lot of people had shopped for games, toys, dolls etc. and contributed to 33% of the online sale. There were many who indulged in buying books, jewelry and watches, cosmetics and health and beauty aids, mobile phones and accessories and a range of household appliances along with food and liquor.
- When we take a keener look at the mobile device traffic that happened on Black Friday, one can notice that a good 11.2% of the retail traffic came in through tablets. It is also a very interesting find that 2/3rds of the visits to the retail websites have been made through smartphones (65.1%).
- Over the years, Thanksgiving had become a huge occasion to indulge in shopping offline as well as online. Retailers are at their competitive best in outdoing one another and offering the best of deals for Black Friday or even Cyber Monday.
Adobe Digital Insights stated that for a period of five days, starting on Thanksgiving, running into Cyber Monday, the overall sales grossed $12.8 billion US dollars. Cyber Monday has recorded history in terms of grossing highest sales. Sales on Cyber Monday and Black Friday touched the $1 billion mark in mobile sales. The statistics also depict an interesting fact…there is a shift of patronage from tablets to more user friendly large screen smartphones.
M-Connect Media Analysis:
The above analysis is clearly indicative of buyers’ behavior during peak festive season. The Majority of them is now shifting from their tablets to their smartphones to shop for a myriad range of products. Regardless of the kind of products, they are shopping for, they are making use of the more (the most) convenient to carry and use smartphones.
Here is an interesting point to note…the percentage of shoppers shopping from their desktops is showing a steady increase. The same applies to sales accomplished through tablets and smartphones too. When there is an increase in all the three segments, it just is indicative of the fact that the percentage of people shopping online is on a steady increase.
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With the findings arrived at above, we can arrive at a conclusion as to how the buying behavior of people would be in the forthcoming year.
- This season, next year, could again rewrite the records. The tug of war between Black Friday and Cyber Monday would still be on as which one would outsmart the other.
- As the shift is from tablets to smartphones, all businesses should focus on getting a website for the smartphones. This is soon going to become the order of the day. Despite this trend, there would still be those conventional minded people who would stick to their desktops and laptops for buying whatever they want.
- Free shipping offer is yet another catch for most of the shoppers. This offer draws in more than 70% of the eCommerce
- And, eCommerce has come big time and is here to stay. So, the brick and mortar stores can definitely expect a dip in their sales the forthcoming season.
- We need to track a few trends very closely during 2017.
Let’s take a quick look at what they are:
- Smartphones would become the most sought after channel through which online purchases would be made. Of course, tablets too would enjoy their share of patronage. So, it becomes essential for the brick and mortar stores to have an online representation without fail in order to expand and grow their business.
- The advantage of shopping in the most comfortable of places, minus the onus of driving and facing the traffic would definitely catch up with more and more people. Online sales would definitely take ultimate advantage of the same.
- When the shopping can be done from the comfort of your place, in your pajamas, you can revisit the website as many times as you feel pulled towards shopping and as long as there are deals going on.
In fact, it is devoid of any kind of a doubt that people are more likely to opt for this kind of an experience again and again. Shoppers always would love to be treated to a unique experience.
Is it the golden time for business retailers?
The demand shot up so high that the site of Macy’s went into trouble as it was unable to keep up with the surge of huge traffic, especially on Black Friday. A survey done by NRF/Prosper Insights and Analytics suggested that an average shopper had spent $289.19 which was a spend down from a spend of $299.6 last year. This translates into a dip of 3.5%. Regardless of this decrease, there is a forecast however made by the NRF which suggests that the months of November, as well as December, would show an up in sales by 3.6%. This Christmas would definitely be the best Christmas periods that the industry has ever witnessed in recent years.
Will the Trend Change?
Is the migration here to stay or the trend will change? Are the brick and mortar shoppers going to make the switch to the online shopping at all? These remains to be seen! People’s psyche and behavior are difficult to predict. Every year would perhaps be a new twist and turn of affairs. As of now, despite this discrepancy, it is still the physical stores that remain the major attraction for sales, being breathed followed very closely by the online shopping aficionados.
Recommended Read: Black Friday Guide for eCommerce Website
Get prepared to handle the shopping rush during the festive season in 2017 from now itself. And how can you do that? Get the right responsive website design for your eCommerce business so that you do not lose out on the market share that heavily depends on their smartphones to shop for anything!
Learn more about how M-Connect Media can help your online business stay on top during the festive season. See how you could attract the holiday rush in your direction with the expertise the professionals at M-Connect have to offer.
