New Single-Day E-Commerce Record of $913 million part of $27 Billion In Online Spending for 2009 Holiday Season

Back in early December I noted that holiday sales were off to a good start. Now that the holiday shopping season is over, it’s clearer than ever that having a strong e-Commerce strategy is more important than ever. While brick and mortar stores saw little or even negative growth this holiday season, e-commerce enjoyed a 5% increase in sales over last year.

And all of these numbers only account for sales within the United States!

$634,027 Per Minute

Tuesday, December 15 marked a new single-day spending record as consumers spent an average of over $600,000 per minute. By the end of the day, a staggering $913 million had been spent online, the first such day to surpass the $900 million threshold.

Even more impressive is the fact that nine individual days of the 2009 holiday season saw e-commerce sales exceeding $800 million. As comScore (a company that tracks online spending) chairman Gian Fulgoni put it, “Each day through Thursday December 17, the last day that many online retailers would guarantee free shipping in time for Christmas, saw at least $800 million in spending… savvy consumers may have been waiting for those last-minute deals… ”

It’s clear that e-commerce is and will continue to be a key source of growth in the retail sector. Blue Fountain Media is an expert in e-commerce. We can build new sites or update existing ones. We also specialize in web marketing–everything from driving new traffic to improving bounce rates and conversions for existing visitors. Call Blue Fountain Media today or request a quote.

What does this mean for you?

Cyber Monday–the first Monday after Thanksgiving–sales grew 5-percent versus a year ago. The growth was driven primarily by an increase in the number of buyers, reflecting consumers’ increasing familiarity and comfort with online buying, while average spending per buyer was down slightly. Specifically, the number of online buyers grew 6 percent to 8.7 million, while the average dollars spent per buyer declined 2 percent to $102.19 (the first decline in the history of Cyber Monday).

As buyers become pickier and more sophisticated about online shopping, their expectations have increased. They are looking for modern, robust sites that make online shopping easy while still maintaining the advantages of in-store shopping. This includes easily browsing large quantities of merchandise, easy search and sorting, easily viewing large and detailed images, and social media tools to share products with friends. It is more important than ever to make sure your e-commerce site is up to par.

Is Black Friday the new Cyber Monday? That’s a question the New York Times asked in a blog post pointing out that while Cyber Monday sales increase 5% this year year, in 2008 they were up 15%. Meanwhile, Black Friday sales on the Web increased 11 percent this year, compared to 1 percent last year. The point is, e-commerce is the future of growth in retail and is cutting into traditional brick-and-mortar territory across the board.

Online shopping still has room to grow as a portion of total retail. This holiday season, people will spend $30 billion online and $438 billion offline, according to eMarketer and the National Retail Federation. But online spending is expected to increase 5.4 percent while offline spending is expected to decline 1 percent. It’s not too late to start or upgrade your e-commerce site.

More people are shopping online than ever before. Sixty-nine percent of adult Internet users plan to make a holiday purchase online this year, compared to 55 percent in 2008 and 49 percent in 2007, according to Shop.org.

“Consumers are still obviously cash-strapped,” notes comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni, yet “every year there are more people that take to e-commerce.” How is your company reacting to the e-commerce revolution? Blue Fountain Media is a full-service e-commerce website design, development, and marketing firm based in New York City. Our core strengths are customization, quick turn-around, and direct communication with our clients. Contact us to find out more.

Data courtesy of comScore Inc.