comScore: First month of holiday season sees 5% bump in online sales

NEW YORK — As the first month of the holiday shopping season nears to a close, media measurement and analytics company comScore has released its desktop online shopping data for the first 27 of the November-December shopping season. So far, shoppers have spent $23.4 billion online — a 5% increase over last year. 

 

"While the holiday season opened a little softer than anticipated, Thanksgiving and Black Friday both posted strong online spending totals that surpassed $1 billion on desktop computers and grew at the rate we had expected," comScore chairman emeritus Gian Fulgoni said. "This is also the second straight year that Thanksgiving has established itself as one of the more important online buying days, while Black Friday continues to gain in importance online with each passing year. 

 

Just on Thanksgiving Day, shoppers spent 9% more than they did last year, shelling out $1.1 billion in online purchases, making 2015 the second year that online spending on Thanksgiving has surpassed the $1 billion mark. And Black Friday saw a 10% bump over last year as shoppers spent $1.66 billion on desktop online purchases. And with such big spending before the unofficial main event for online shopping, Cyber Monday, comScore is predicting a strong showing. 

 

“Looking ahead to Cyber Monday, we expect to see upwards of $2.5 billion in desktop spending as people return to their work computers after Thanksgiving weekend and use some of their down time to continue their holiday gift buying, but without other family members looking over their shoulders,” Fulgoni said. 

 

And though comScore’s data only encompasses desktop sales, Branding Brand has released the infographic below highlighting the growing role of mobile in online shopping, highlighting the fact that 61% of online visits for retailers came from mobile.