From Multichannel Merchant:
Adobe reported that Cyber Monday hit a new record as the largest U.S. online sales day in history, with $6.59 billion in sales, up 16.8% from $5.6 billion in 2016.
According to Adobe, Black Friday and Thanksgiving Day brought in $5.03 billion and $2.87 billion, respectively. The holiday shopping season so far has totaled $50 billion in online revenue, again a 16.8% increase and more than $1 billion per day. Adobe is predicting this will be the first-ever holiday season to break $100 billion in online sales.
“This past Cyber Monday, the behavior of shopping your work computer during the day is almost completely reversed,” said Taylor Schreiner, Director of Adobe Digital Insights. “This year, mobile shopping was dominant both in the morning and afternoon, and desktop only staged a comeback in the evening when people were home.”
Web traffic to retail sites increased by 11.9% on Cyber Monday, nearly double the holiday season average to date (5.7%). Mobile set a new record with its first $2 billion sales day. Smartphones accounted for 37.6% of retail visits and 21.3% of revenue, Adobe said, while tablets were used more as entertainment. Gaming devices accounted for 8.2% of retail visits and 9.1% of revenue on Cyber Monday.
. . . .
Gina Ashe, CEO of ThirdChannel, said despite retailers’ optimistic comments over the weekend about online success and steady in-store traffic, doubts remain about brick-and-mortar performance through the rest of the holiday shopping season.
“The vast majority visit stores only after researching products and gifts ahead of time, so they expect staff to tell them something they don’t know about a product, or give them an immersive demo or experience that can’t be replicated online,” Ashe said.
She added if brands don’t prepare staffing, displays and inventory to demonstrate that value when shoppers hit their store, they’re bound to lose interest.
Link to the rest at Multichannel Merchant
Stores preparing staff? HA! I’ve never worked for a business that adequately trained staff. There’s no budget for that, not when the head honcho needs a new car/plane/whatever.
I worked for an organization that trained its staff. It was called the United States Air Force. 😀
I’ve worked for organizations that do a superb job of training. I’ve also done the training, borrowing heavily from methods used by the USMC.
By comparison Alibaba’s Singles Day in China took more than $5 billion in the first fifteen minutes and cleared over $25 billion by end of the day – more than 50% of Amazon’s record three month takings in 24 hours.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/helenwang/2017/11/12/alibabas-singles-day-by-the-numbers-a-record-25-billion-haul/#59bb3c311db1