Posted by Cristina Lucero, Research Associate
For the holiday season-to-date, $35.3 billion has been spent online, marking a 15% increase versus the corresponding days last year (comScore). The most recent week (ending Dec. 25) witnessed $2.8 billion in spending, an increase of 16% versus the same week last year. Peak online holiday spending occurred on Nov. 28th (Cyber Monday); according to comScore, “online retail sales topped $1.25 billion that day—the heaviest online shopping day in history.”
Digital products like music, e-books and apps helped elevate sales on the final days of the season. According to comScore, sales in the digital content and subscriptions category accounted for more than 20% of Christmas Day sales, whereas the category’s daily sales average was only 2.8%. This trend is expected to continue as tablet/e-reader adoption increases and shoppers seek accessories and content for their new devices.
Don’t Underestimate January!
The holiday season isn’t over quite yet. According to Google’s Retail Blog:
- Gift card spending this season is expected to be $27.8 billion. Shoppers will be redeeming gift cards in the first couple of weeks post Christmas. And last year, 72% of shoppers spent more than their gift card’s value.
- Last year, the 13 days between December 26th and January 15th saw higher online sales than Black Friday
- In January 2011, total retail sales rose 5.5% over December 2010 and 12% over January 2010
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