U.S. Holiday Desktop E-Commerce Sales Up 15% In 2014 Resulting In Another Big Year For Online Retailers [ComScore]

Cyber Monday delivered biggest online spending day of the holiday season with $2.038 billion in sales for purchases made via desktops.

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According to comScore’s latest reports, this past holiday season proved to be another gangbuster two months for online retailers. Desktop ecommerce sales increased 15 percent over 2013’s November and December sales results, reaching more than $53 billion in sales for the 2014 holiday season.

Online desktop sales occurring between November 1 and December 31 was up more than $6 billion compared to the $46.5 billion spent in 2013.

ComScore’s chairman and emeritus Gian Fulgoni noted that ecommerce sales exceeded his company’s predictions.

[pullquote]Despite a shortened holiday calendar between Thanksgiving and Christmas and erroneous reports of flogging holiday sales, the American consumer proved resilient and flexed their spending muscle online this year.[/pullquote]

“The 2014 online holiday shopping season was very strong overall as spending slightly exceeded our fairly optimistic forecast heading into the season,” said Fulgoni.

ComScore broke down the holiday ecommerce sales results by day and year to reveal Cyber Monday as the holiday season’s biggest online shopping day, generating more than $2 billion in desktop sales.

comscore 2014 holiday ecommerce report

According to comScore, the three top ecommerce days for desktop sales included Cyber Monday, the first Tuesday of December (December 2), and December 8 or “Green Monday,” a term coined by eBay.

2014’s Black Friday ranked fourth as the season’s biggest online shopping day.

comscore 2014 holiday ecommerce biggest shopping days

Analyzing combined desktop and mobile sales for the 2014 holiday season, IBM’s Digital Analytics Benchmark report showed an increase of 13.9 percent over 2013’s ecommerce sales results.

According to IBM’s numbers, the average order value (AOV) from desktop ecommerce sales occurring between November 1 and December 31 was $125.12, an increase of 19 percent over mobile’s AOV at $104.82.

“Mobile sales accounted for 22.6 percent of all online sales for the 2014 season,” reported IBM, up 27.2 percent over 2013.

IBM also evaluated online traffic during the holiday season, reporting desktop traffic accounted for 54.8 percent of all online traffic, and 77.3 percent of online sales.


Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily MarTech. Staff authors are listed here.


About the author

Amy Gesenhues
Contributor
Amy Gesenhues was a senior editor for Third Door Media, covering the latest news and updates for Marketing Land, Search Engine Land and MarTech Today. From 2009 to 2012, she was an award-winning syndicated columnist for a number of daily newspapers from New York to Texas. With more than ten years of marketing management experience, she has contributed to a variety of traditional and online publications, including MarketingProfs, SoftwareCEO, and Sales and Marketing Management Magazine. Read more of Amy's articles.

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