The FINANCIAL — comScore on January 5 reported holiday season U.S. retail e-commerce spending from desktop computers for the entire November-December 2016 holiday season.
For the holiday season, $63.1 billion was spent online on desktop computers, marking a 12-percent increase versus the corresponding days last year. Cyber Monday (Monday, Nov. 28) once again ranked as the heaviest spending day of the year with more than $2 billion in desktop buying for the third year in a row and becoming the first day ever to eclipse $1 billion in mobile commerce, according to comScore.
“The 2016 online holiday shopping season had another successful year, with desktop growth rates in line with our expectations and once again far exceeding that of brick-and-mortar,” said comScore CEO Gian Fulgoni. “We also saw strong mobile commerce spending in November, with mobile’s share of total e-commerce coming in well ahead of the 20-percent mark it reached in Q3. Once December mobile commerce data is tallied, we expect spending from smartphones and tablets to lift holiday spending growth from 12 percent on desktop to within our original forecast range of 16-19 percent.”
Mr. Fulgoni continued: “Aside from the continued growth of m-commerce, another positive story from this holiday season was the way it fought back and overcame the early season malaise. Despite that initial setback, the American consumer kicked into high gear once Thanksgiving rolled around and the season saw consistent, healthy growth rates all the way through Free Shipping Day on December 16th, highlighted by a streak of 22 consecutive billion-dollar spending days on desktop. Looking back on the season as a whole, 2016 marked another year where digital – and in particular, mobile – grew its spending share and influence relative to traditional brick-and-mortar retail.”
Top 10 Desktop Spending Days in 2016 Holiday Season
Cyber Monday (Nov. 28), for the seventh consecutive year, ranked as the heaviest online buying day with $2.7 billion in desktop spending. The day after Cyber Monday ranked second for the season at $2.2 billion, followed by Black Friday (Nov. 25) with just under $2 billion and Friday, Dec. 9 with $1.7 billion. For the entire season, 30 individual days exceeded $1 billion in online spending via desktop, nearly doubling the 16 days reaching that milestone the previous year.
