Online Holiday Sales Off To A Blistering Start

By Sam Lewis

E-commerce sales rise 14 percent in early stages of holiday shopping season

Early predictions for the 2013 holiday shopping season by retail analysts ranged anywhere from stagnant, to cautious optimism. But so far, it seems that shoppers are busy filling Santa’s bag of goodies for the Tiny Tims and Cindy Lou Whos across the globe.

From Nov 1 to Nov 24, holiday shoppers have spent nearly $19 billion in e-commerce, marking a rise of 14 percent against the same time frame of 2012. According to comScore — an analytics firm whose research is closely watched by Wall Street — Tuesday, Nov 19 was the biggest day for the holiday shopping season thus far, pulling in $963 million. Two other days — Thursday, Nov 14 and Sunday, Nov 24 — were also able to break the $900 million mark in online holiday retail spending. “The heaviest online spending day thus far fell just shy of $1 billion in sales, and though we've not yet reached that benchmark we can expect to see that spending threshold eclipsed numerous times during the post-Thanksgiving period,” says Andrew Lipsman, comScore VP of marketing & insights. “Black Friday and Cyber Monday can both be expected to easily surpass that total, with Cyber Monday already beginning to point toward $2 billion.”

comScore expects mobility to play a bigger-than-ever role in holiday shopping this season. The research agency is forecasting smartphones and tablets to be responsible for more than $7 billion of retail sales during the holidays. This represents 13 percent of all e-commerce retail sales, which comScore expects to reach $55.2 billion for the season. This forecast mirrors the prediction of Forrester Research, which estimates e-commerce sales will climb 15 percent this year, surpassing 2012’s 14 percent growth. Online and mobile sales will be more crucial than ever this holiday season. Retailers report as much as 40 percent of annual sales during the holidays. With e-commerce and mobile sales growing faster each year, retailers prepared for shoppers with omnichannel options will likely fare better than those who are not.

Inventory — the key to a successful holiday season

The National Retail Federation (NRF) is predicting a 3 to 4 percent increase in overall holiday sales this year. comScore’s early season figures indicate that shoppers are on track to at least meet, if not beat that figure. With the much anticipated Black Friday and the rising popularity of Cyber Monday — which comScore believes will be bigger than ever this year — still yet to play out, the health of the retail climate might be in better shape than previously thought.

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