PCR Tech and IT retail, distribution and vendor news
For the first time ever, consumers are set to spend more money on Cyber Monday sales than they did on Black Friday. According to an estimate from Adobe Analytics, online purchases on Cyber Monday will climb from last year’s $3.4 billion to $6.6 billion. With shoppers literally forcing one another out of the way for Black Friday bargains, it is not really a surprise that online shopping is proving profitable.
“That’s a pretty amazing statistic when you think about it,” said Roger Beahm, the executive director of the Center for Retail Innovation at Wake Forest University. “Just in the last few years, the double-digit growth we have been seeing with online shopping suggests that we’re now at that tipping point where people are going to be shopping online more than there are people buying inside brick-and-mortar.”
This year, Adobe Analytics expects that purchases made on mobile devices will account for 54 percent of all e-commerce holiday sales — the first time they’ll surpass online sales made on desktop machines. It is something the Channel was prepared for, as Adam Simon, Global MD at Context, explains: “Mobility will play an increasing role in both shopping and purchase. All ads and promotions need to be optimised for mobile. The mobile phone is where the customer shopping journey begins, it is the portal for the research and is rapidly becoming a major portal to complete the purchase.”
Other areas are also expected to be boosted this year, with Click and Collect purchases as well as mobile sales expected to be up on 2016 figures. As Stuart Ramage, head of Online Trading at Dixons Carphone predicts: “Customers tend to do their research in advance, have an idea of what they want to buy and will place an order online and either make the most of next day deliver or Click and Collect in-store. This year we’re expecting a continued increase in both online and in-store sales.”
He adds: “We also expect customers to be purchasing products on-the-go from mobile phones, more than previous years. Last year mobile device traffic was up 14 per cent and we are expecting this growth to continue.”
