Online Holiday Sales Seen Topping $70 Billion
Total 2015 U.S. online holiday spending will grow 14 percent to $70 billion this holiday season, said a report released Wednesday by comScore. Some $11.7 billion of e-commerce sales will be fueled by mobile shopping, up 47 percent from 2014, said comScore. The pace is slightly off last year’s 15 percent growth rate for mobile shopping while spending via desktop PCs is forecast to hit $58.3 billion, said comScore. Overall digital commerce is expected to account for roughly 15 percent of consumers’ discretionary spending this holiday season.
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On a webcast Tuesday, comScore warned of “relatively meek” Black Friday week receipts in store, but expected online sales to make up for any shortfall. Online shopping, however, “more than compensated for the softness of in-store sales,” a trend comScore Executive Chairman Emeritus Gian Fulgoni expects to play out again this year. The online retail tracking service is predicting $3 billion in revenue on Cyber Monday while maintaining an overall positive outlook for the season.
Free shipping is the top factor consumers consider for online shopping, with 53 percent of survey respondents listing free shipping as the most important consideration in online shopping followed by exclusive online deals at 22 percent, said Fulgoni on Tuesday's webcast. The 22 percent is the lowest that exclusive deals have ranked in consumer surveys, said Fulgoni, attributing the decline to retailers' increasingly consistent omnichannel pricing across channels. In Q3, 69 percent of online transactions included free shipping, the highest level historically, said Fulgoni.
The holiday season is following a Q3 that was up 8 percent to $58.3 billion in online spending, comScore said. The number of online buyers grew to 208 million from 197 million, while average order value grew from $71.80 to $77.80, said the researcher. The number of online transactions in Q3 slipped by 0.4 percent to 748 million, while the number of transactions per buyer dropped off by 5.3 percent, it said. Nearly all shopping categories posted double-digit growth in Q3, as videogames, consoles and accessories posted strong growth of more than 20 percent for the period.