US retailers experienced strong growth on this year’s Cyber Monday, with online sales up 33pc from last year, according to IBM’s cloud-based analytics findings.
Cyber Monday is one of the busiest online shopping days of the year, coming after the US’ Black Friday shopping day.
IBM undertook its fourth online retail benchmark study to track the shopping trends on Cyber Monday. IBM tracks over 1m transactions a day, analysing terabytes of data from 500 US retailers to help them better understand customer’s spending habits.
This year, it found that online sales were up 33pc since last year, with US consumers spending US$198.26 each, compared to US$193.24 last year.
Online shopping reached its peak at 11:05am PST/2:05pm EST and maintained strong momentum after commuting hours on the east and west coasts of the US.
Over 10pc of shoppers used a mobile phone to visit a retailer’s website, up from 3.9pc last year. Mobile sales grew to 6.6pc, compared to 2.3pc in 2010.
Cyber Monday vs Black Friday
However, Black Friday experienced more mobile web traffic, at 14.3pc. Black Friday shoppers bought more goods online with their phones too, reaching 9.8pc.
The iPhone and the iPad ranked first and second for mobile device traffic., with Android coming in third.
In terms of shopping on the internet in general, online sales were up 29.3pc on Cyber Monday over this year’s Black Friday.
Shoppers referring to stores through social networks were very similar on both Black Friday and Cyber Monday. These channels accounted for 0.53pc of online sales on Black Friday and 0.56pc of online sales on Cyber Monday. Facebook was the most-used social network for shopping, accounting for 86pc of all social media traffic.
Cyber Monday discussions on social networks increased in volume by 115pc compared to 2010. The top areas of discussion were tips on price comparison sites, Cyber Monday deals for international consumers and conversations on Black Friday experiences.
“Cyber Monday was once again the big winner for the Thanksgiving holiday shopping season, with a record number of consumers focused on finding the best online deals,” said John Squire, Chief Strategy Officer of IBM Smarter Commerce.
“Retailers that adopted a smarter approach to commerce, one that allowed them to swiftly adjust to the shifting shopping habits of their customers, whether in-store, online or via their mobile device, were able to fully benefit from this day and the entire holiday weekend,” he said.
