Holiday shoppers spent $1.4 billion online from their desktops on Green Monday (December 9th), up 10 percent versus year ago. It represented the third heaviest online spending day of the holiday season-to-date.
ComScore chairman Gian Fulgoni noted that the 10-percent year-over-year growth rate might at first seem somewhat underwhelming, but he said consumers were doing more online shopping on the weekends this year.
Fulgoni said the trend toward weekend shopping could be attributed to the effects of showrooming, and said, “it’s also likely that many consumers realize the holiday spending clock is ticking and are urgently buying their gifts whenever they have time. And that, in turn, works to the benefit of ecommerce.”
It’s also interesting to note that there was a lull during the same period last year: The week of Dec. 1 – 7, 2012 saw a 9% growth rate year-over-year. But shopping picked up later in December, with the work-week of Dec. 17 – 21, 2012 experiencing a whopping 53% year-over-year growth.
Also compounding the challenges of comparing growth rates this year is the lateness of marquee shopping days thanks to a late Thanksgiving. As we previously noted, because Cyber Monday fell on Dec. 2, 2013, six days later than last year (Nov. 26, 2012), it makes it difficult to make an apples-to-apples comparison to the holiday shopping season as a whole.
ComScore’s Fulgoni said there was an interesting emerging storyline that helps speak to what’s happening during this year’s very unique holiday season.
“It would appear that the abbreviated calendar between Thanksgiving and Christmas is compelling shoppers to complete more of their online buying during the weekends – with this most recent weekend boasting an exceptional 71-percent gain from last year, following on the heels of last weekend’s 34-percent jump. The weekend is typically a lighter period of online buying than during workdays, but the weekend surges we’re seeing may be attributable to the effects of showrooming, with the in-store shopping experience increasingly getting disrupted by comparison shopping on mobile phones, leading to more conversions online after leaving the store. Of course, it’s also likely that many consumers realize the holiday spending clock is ticking and are urgently buying their gifts whenever they have time. And that, in turn, works to the benefit of ecommerce.”
