Marketing Pilgrim

All of the talk of how things were on ‘Black Friday’ is now followed by the yearly quest for the Cyber Monday data. We in the online world love to see just how much the shift to online commerce continues to overtake the traditional way that goods and services are sold. Whether these numbers are inflated or given too much credit is always a concern but this year’s trends, at least from a few sources, points to the continued rise of online growing while brick and mortar struggles.

To what degree this year’s trending points to a larger economic trend is a huge TBD (to be determined). Honestly, more people may have experimented with online purchasing to save time and money including gas and food that is part of the in-store shopping experience of a venture out on Black Friday. That’s just my thought and there is NO scientific backing on that one.

As for more ‘official’ statistics, Retailer Daily sums it up this way

Both annual consumer spending and traffic levels went up on “Cyber Monday”, according to third-party research results. Consumers’ interest in shopping online appeared to carry over from “Black Friday” last week, when e-commerce sales increased at a significantly higher rate than brick-and-mortar sales.

Here are a few highlights from the Coremetrics Cyber Monday 2009 report (PDF):

• E-commerce sales were 13.7% higher on Cyber Monday this year than they were last year
• Average dollar amount spent by consumers per online order rose 38.2%, from $130.24 to $180.03
• Apparel retailers and jewelry retailers drove this increase with 26.4% and 14.3% jumps in average dollar amount spent per online order, respectively.
• Sporting goods segment, retailers reported a nearly 55% increase in new site visitors, but a 3.1% decline in average dollar amount spent per online order.
• Department store retailers reported a 33% increase in new site visitors, but a nearly 10% decrease in the average value of each online order.
• Per order, consumers purchased 30% more items this year than they did last year.

November 2009 American Express Spending and Saving Tracker reports that this e-commerce surge may trend though the holiday season

• 79% of overall respondents plan to use the internet as a tool for holiday shopping
• 45% plan to purchase items online
• 28% will use the internet to buy hard-to-find items
• 27% will use the internet for product research
• 25% will go online for gift ideas

One particularly interesting piece of data is around the projected use of mobile in the holiday shopping experience is on the rise.

According to the Deloitte 24th Annual Holiday Survey, 19% of consumers plan to access the internet via their mobile phones while shopping to find store locations, obtain coupons and sales information, as well as research products and prices. This percentage rose to 39% in the 18 to 29 age group.

So do we dare take this information and say that the economy is truly on the rebound and rosier days are ahead for all? Probably not a good idea. I guess the solace that can be taken is that if there is one industry in the marketing world that is at least going to stay afloat during these rough times it’s the Internet marketing segment. Maybe we should just count those blessings and move on.

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