Now that we’re past the holidays, it’s time to take a look at how the 2015 season treated ecommerce retailers.
Mobile was the true star of the holidays
According to comScore, total digital (desktop and mobile) holiday spending went from $61.3 billion in 2014 to $69.1 billion in 2015, representing a 13% increase. While desktop spending was only a 6% bump over 2014, mobile was a whooping 59% increase.
Gian Fulgoni, chairman emeritus of comScore, summed it up best: “If there is an underlying takeaway from this holiday season, I think it will be remembered as the one where ‘mobile ate brick-and-mortar.’”
Cyber Monday reigned supreme as the top ecommerce day of the season
Unshockingly, Cyber Monday ruled the holiday season as the heaviest online spending day, bringing in $3.1 billion in total digital commerce, a 21% increase over the same day in 2014. Yet again, mobile shined: even though it only accounted for less than ⅓ of sales, it jumped 53% over 2014’s numbers.
The top three ecommerce days of 2015 were:
- Monday, November 30th (Cyber Monday)
- Tuesday, December 1st
- Friday, November 27th (Black Friday)
More spending in ecommerce = more strain on shipping companies
For the third year in a row, online purchases surged past expectations for shipping volume for FedEx, UPS and USPS, causing delays across the country. All in all, UPS delivered around 420 million packages, FedEx handled 228 million, and UPS juggled 545 million, an 8% increase from 2014.
From UPS CEO David Abney “Going into Cyber Week, we had good plans. Then Cyber Weekend and Cyber Monday, the volume — I wouldn’t say surged throughout the network, but in two or three primary locations, we got much more volume than we originally thought.”
What to keep in mind for 2016
In short, ecommerce is booming, mobile is leading, and shipping strains should be expected and planned for. Almost $400 billion in ecommerce sales are expected this year. Let’s get ready.
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