We’ve compiled a bursting at the seams fact pack of some of the hot trends and highlights surrounding this year’s holiday online shopping period which officially kicked off on November 26, the day called “Cyber Monday.” The term “Cyber Monday” was coined by the National Retail Federation’s Shop.org division in 2005.

Download Web Ad.vantage’s “Cyber monday” fact pack as a PDF file

— Traditional Retailers & eTailers Cater to Consumers, Responding to Higher Gas Prices — Greater Buying Confidence — Better Retailer & Etailer Customer Service — Lower/Free Shipping Offers — Deep Discounts…Secret Sales — Early “DoorBuster” Incentives — Easy Internet Access at Work and Home. -

• Online Sales Surge to Record $700 Million as eCommerce Website Traffic Hits All-Time High (Source: comScore, Inc.)
• The Akamai Net Usage Index for Retail, chronicling real-time “Cyber Monday” traffic to 300+ online shopping sites, reported 30% visitor traffic increases globally and 37% in North American visitor traffic over 2006.
• 72% of online retailers offered special holiday deals on Cyber Monday — up nearly 30% (from 43% two years ago)[1]
• New comScore report bumped 2007 online holiday purchases to $700 million - nearly up $100 million over $608M in 2006:
  • More than $9.3 billion has been spent online during the season to-date, marking a 17% gain versus the corresponding days last year. Online retail spending was strong on both Thanksgiving Day (up 29% to $272 million) and Black Friday (up 22% to $531 million), outpacing the season-to-date growth rate.[7]
• U.S. Shoppers will spend $474.5 Billion in 2007 Holiday Season (up only 4% as economy curbs spending) [1] and [2]
  • 72.0 million consumers shopped online from home or at work, (more than 50% from work), up from 60.7 million in 2006 and 59.0 million in 2005. 31.9 % of adults to shopped on Cyber Monday, up 17.3% over last year (27.2%).[2]
  • 105.2 million shoppers (>6% from 98.7M in 2006) will buy online this 2007 holiday season
  • That would fall well below the 10-year average of 4.8% annually and would be the slowest holiday sales growth since 2002
  • U.S. shoppers will spend $31.1 billion online in 2007 (up 18.5% from $26.2B in 2006)
  • Average online spending to increase to $295 per family (up $29 over 2006)
  • More than 68% of Shoppers plan to shop Discount Stores/Sites
  • Gift Preferences are still gift cards (54%); followed by clothing (50%); Books, CDs, DVDs, videos and video games (nearly 51%); consumer electronics or computer-related accessories (>36% — up already 134% over 2006); jewelry (<24%); home décor or furnishings (22%).
  • Search/shopping criteria are: sales or discounts (38%); merchandise selection (23%); everyday low prices and product quality (both at nearly 13%); convenience (6%); and customer service (<5%).
  • 70% of all online shoppers conduct online searches (and 57% offline with 64% using Search Engines, primarily Google) before making a purchase.[3]
    • Search Engines account for 25% of visits to Shopping and Classifieds websites Google is the most prominent source of traffic.
    • Single word search queries (including domain and URL searches) = 23.7% of search terms sending traffic to Shopping and Classifieds websites in May 2007.
    • The top 20 social networking websites also grew as a source of traffic for Shopping and Classifieds websites, accounting for 3.6% — an 86.7% increase over 2006, and (MySpace leads)
  • Shoppers’ top reasons for shopping online instead of stores: ability to shop at any time of day (58.5%), not wanting to fight crowds in stores (43.8%), and the general convenience of shopping on the Internet (38.7%).
  • Shoppers also said they like the ability to compare prices online (36.2%) and those items are often easier to find online than in stores (29.9%). [4]
  • One survey claimed 73% of polled shoppers cited they would spend more in 2007 due to higher gas costs and lower shipping costs this holiday season. Many online shopping sites are offering free or low cost shipping this season. [5]
  • Brand reputation followed by Friend or family recommendations is the leading drivers of consumer purchases. Majority of surveyed online shoppers (62%) cite online consumer product reviews. [6]
  • Holiday shopping is off to a slow start, with the National Retail Federation surveys indicating 71% of consumers have done less than 10% of their shopping
  • Biggest Expected Shopping Days: In 2006, Wednesday, December 13 marked the heaviest online spending day with $667 million spent, followed by Monday, December 11 and Monday, December 4. Monday, November 27 (“Cyber Monday”) was surpassed 11 times during the subsequent weeks of the holiday season. [7]

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[1] eMarketer: Holiday E-Commerce Preview, Senior Analyst Jeffrey Grau, November 2007.
[2] National Retail Federation and BIGresearch, September, 2007 and November 26, 2007 and http://www.shop.org/cybermonday/112607.asp
[3] DoubleClick, “DoubleClick Performics Unveils Search Usage Study: Searcher Moms - A Search Behavior and Usage Study,” August 21, 2007.
[4] BizRate Research for Shop.org and Shopzilla, “2007 eHoliday Study“, October 2007.
[5] Vizu Survey sponsored by buySAFE, November 2007.
[6] Deloitte & Touche USA LLP, “New Technologies Provide Consumers with a Wealth of Information to Make Purchase Decisions, While Also Empowering Them to Shape Company Reputations,” October 2007.
[7] comScore, “comScore Networks Reports Total Non-Travel E-Commerce Spending,” (for U.S in 2006.), January 2007, and November 2007. November Press Release

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