Black Friday sees $1.2 billion spent by Americans on ecommerce via their desktops.
Americans have opted for ‘Couch Commerce’ by staying at home, avoiding the crushes and increased on Thanksgiving Day spending. Apparel & Accessories ranks as the top product category with Amazon being once again the top online retailer.
Due to variation in the 2012 and 2013 holiday shopping calendars with Thanksgiving falling so late this year, current season figures are being compared to last year’s, which contain a full week of heavy post Thanksgiving/Cyber Week buying.
As a result, the season-to-date growth rate is being artificially suppressed in the short term, with the effects likely to normalize as the season progresses. (An alternative comparison to the four weeks preceding Thanksgiving in our blog post of last week: Ecommerce sales forecast for 2013 holiday season shows a growth rate of 24 percent, which overstates the growth trend much in the way the current rate understates the real growth trend.)
Black Friday 2013 (November 29th) saw $1.198 billion in desktop online sales, making it the season’s first billion dollar day and heaviest online spending day to date, while representing a 15-percent increase versus Black Friday 2012. Thanksgiving Day (November 28), while traditionally a lighter day for online holiday spending, achieved a strong 21-percent increase over Thanksgiving Day last year to $766 million.
Amazon Ranks #1 Among Online Retailers on Black Friday
66.1 million Americans visited online retail sites on Black Friday using a desktop computer, representing an increase of 16 percent versus year ago. Amazon once again ranked as the most visited online retail site on Black Friday, followed by eBay, Walmart, Best Buy and Target.
Most Visited Retailer Properties on Black Friday 2013
Total U.S. – Home & Work Desktop Computers
Source: comScore, Inc.
Retail Property
1 Amazon
2 eBay
3 Walmart
4 Best Buy
5 Target
Apparel & Accessories Leads the Way for Holiday Category Spending
Top Online Product Categories by Dollar Sales in 2013 Holiday Season to Date
Non-Travel (Retail) E-Commerce Spending
Excludes Auctions and Large Corporate Purchases
Total U.S. – Home & Work Desktop Computers
Source: comScore, Inc.
Category Share (%) of Online Dollar Sales
Apparel & Accessories 28%
Computer Hardware 19%
Consumer Electronics 7%
Consumer Packaged Goods 5%
Shipping Services 5%
All Other Product Categories 36%
The Apparel & Accessories category is posting particularly strong sales this holiday season as compared to the rest of the year with nearly double its baseline (i.e. January through October) market share while leap-frogging Computer Hardware to be the top-grossing product category. Notably, Computer Hardware is also outperforming its baseline market share for the prior ten months.
Whilst mobile ecommerce has grabbed the headlines- good old fashioned laptops and computer towers still dominate the actual spend figures.