Well, it’s Friday, 4 days before Christmas and it seems as the rush for shopping is beginning to calm. This was a crazy month for us, especially for the online retailers, and even more for those who specialize in gifts (We have wuite a lot of those!
I wanted to share here some of the data that was pouring in from the sales centers, the web analytics tools and market research – as this may be a very good lesson for next year.I’ll start with the market research and I want to quote comScore’s published data:
“holiday season e-commerce spending for the first 48 days of the November – December 2007 holiday season (November 1 – December 18). Nearly $25 billion has been spent online during the season-to-date, marking a 19-percent gain versus the corresponding days last year”
2007 Holiday Season To Date vs. Corresponding Days* in 2006
Non-Travel (Retail) Spending
Excludes Auctions and Large Corporate Purchases
Total U.S. – Home/Work/University Locations
Source: comScore, Inc.
Billions ($)
Holiday Season to Date 2006 2007 Pct Change
November 1 – December 18 $20.85 $24.85 19%
Thanksgiving Day (November 22) $0.21 $0.27 29%
“Black Friday” (November 23) $0.43 $0.53 22%
“Cyber Monday” (November 26) $0.61 $0.73 21%
“Green Monday” (December 10) $0.66 $0.88 33%
* Corresponding Shopping Days, Not Calendar Days“It’s also clear that many consumers are willing to delay their holiday shopping later in the season this year in an effort to take advantage of any late season price discounts being offered by retailers.”