Cyber Monday was the heaviest online spending day at $1.25bn for holiday season 2012, says comScore
comScore reported that holiday season retail online e-commerce spending for the first 34 days of the November – December 2011 holiday season was nearly $20bn, a 15% increase compared to the same period last year.
During the period Nov. 28-Dec.2, three individual days eclipsed $1bn in spending, led by Cyber Monday, which became the heaviest online spending day on record at $1.25bn. November 29 it reached $1.12bn and on November 30 it reached $1.03bn. Growth mellowed a bit during the latter part of the workweek, but strengthened over the weekend Dec. 3-4 to 17%, according to the research firm.
comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni said this most recent week of online holiday shopping, known as ‘Cyber Week,’ reached record spending levels as three individual days surpassed the billion dollar threshold. "We are now entering the portion of the season when online retailers typically reduce their promotional activity as they attempt to restore their margins, which can sometimes contribute to temporary softness in spending growth rates," Fulgoni added.
comScore analysis of consumer spending patterns for the holiday season-to-date says that the strong growth rates of 15% were driven by the mid-income segment (households earning $50,000-$99,999) at 19%, while spending among upper-income households ($100,000 and higher) is growing at a rate of 16%. Lower-income households (under $50,000) are seeing a more modest increase of 9%.
Unlike in the past couple of years when the growth in number of buyers was the predominant driver of online spending growth, the majority of this year’s gains are being driven by an increase in spending per buyer. In fact, the number of buyers overall has increased just 3% compared to a 12% increase in dollars per buyer.
Fulgoni added, "We have seen some indications that mid- income Americans might be experiencing ‘austerity fatigue.’ After spending the last couple of years increasing their personal savings in an effort to get their finances in order, some appear to have decided they are done pinching pennies and are increasing their spending by taking advantage of the many promotions and price discounts that online retailers have been offering in the first half of the holiday shopping season. The appeal of lower prices that can be found on the Internet is also undoubtedly a driver of the acceleration of the shift from in-store buying to e-commerce that we are witnessing among all income segments this season."
