Cyber Monday 2011 Sets New Single-Day Online Sales Record
Tuesday, 29 November 2011
For the second consecutive year, a new single-day online sales record was set on Cyber Monday. While IBM has not disclosed the actual sales figures, they have said that sales went up at least 33% from last year. This falls in line with and may surpass the prediction of $1.2 billion in sales by comScore. In 2010, sales came in at $1.03 billion, the first time that the billion-dollar mark had been crossed in a single day of sales.
A large part of the increased amount of spending may have been due to the discounts and special offers that got rolled out this year says comScore analyst Andrew Lipsman. Cyber Monday “is increasing in importance, with virtually all retailers getting involved and more consumers knowing about it as a day for big discounts…consumers [are gaining] more confidence about spending during their holiday season”.
E-mail was a popular way to let consumers know about the upcoming sales with at least 74% of retailers sending at least one on Thanksgiving Day. Last year, 60% did so according to Responsys Inc. The volume of e-mail being sent by retailers this holiday season is already up 18.4% compared to last year says e-mail specialist CheetahMail.
Some retailers reported having their best day ever. Certona client eBags,com certainly predicted so, "It will be a pretty substantial increase over last year's all-time record," said eBags co-founder Peter Cobb. He was right. EBags, #114 in The Top 500 Guide by Internet Retailer, saw sales rise 42.5% compared to Cyber Monday 2010.
Aside from the large sales numbers is the record number of shoppers that browsed shelves and online inventories over the 4-day weekend. 226 million shoppers were recorded starting on Thanksgiving Day. This is up from 212 million last year, said the National Retail Federation (NRF).
Notably, the average order value increased by 2.6% compared to last year. The average order value went up to $198.26 from $193.24.
While mobile shopping was not as involved as it was on Black Friday, they still accounted for 6.6% of all purchases, a 4.3% increase from 2010.
Matt Shay, CEO of NRF, said that sales on Cyber Monday and over the holiday show how retail is “providing a needed shot in the arm to our nascent recovery”.
Some retailers, not wanting to face the normal lull that follows Black Friday and Cyber Monday, are taking the momentum and running with it by advertising “Cyber Week”. Both Amazon and Wal-Mart are among the retailers attempting to keep the sales going.
