It’s a shopping lover’s trifecta: Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday are upon us this weekend. With many consumers opting to shop online instead of brave the crowds, we thought we’d review some surprising online shopping stats that are emerging during this year’s buying bonanza:
1) 56% of Canadians plan to shop for gifts online this year, up 5% from last year.
2) Online shopping on US Thanksgiving was up 17.8% year-over-year and mobile traffic was up 28.5%., according to IBM Smarter Commerce. US consumers spent $633 million on Thanksgiving Day, a 32% increase from last year.
3) US retail e-commerce spending was $1.042 billion on Black Friday, an increase of 26% from last year. This is the first time Black Friday sales surpassed $1 billion in online spending, says comScore.
4 The number of US consumers who used a mobile device to visit a retailer’s site on Black Friday was 28%, up from 18.1% in 2011.
5) In the US, the amount of shopping research — “pre-shopping” — on retailer sites was up 43% for the weekend before Black Friday vs. the same weekend last year, reports ShopLocal.
6) Consumers 18-to-39 are twice as likely to shop online for holiday gifts as those over 40, according to RetailMeNot’s Shoppers Trend Report.
7) 45% of consumers say they’ll likely use a mobile device when holiday shopping this year.
8) 74% of consumers think it would be helpful to be alerted to deals, sales or coupons on a mobile device while shopping in stores.
9) On Black Friday, Amazon was the most popular e-commerce site by visits, followed by Walmart, Best Buy, Target, and Apple. In total, 57.3 million Americans visited online retail sites on Black Friday, representing an increase of 18% versus a year ago.
10) Amazon.co.uk is predicting “Cyber Monday” will be its busiest day ever, with orders set to peak at 9.20 p.m.
