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Signifyd’s holiday numbers show a strong holiday ahead



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Signifyd’s early seasonal data shows that ecommerce’s share of holiday sales continues to grow robustly, while consumers continue to pick and choose when and how they will shop and buy, based on what’s convenient for them.

Consumer survey data and transactional data collected by Signifyd over the year’s biggest shopping weekend paint a picture of the rise of shop-anywhere-anytime customers that hold high expectations of retailers when it comes to providing an excellent customer experience.

Over the long Thanksgiving holiday period, Signifyd again protected more than $1 billion in orders with its Guaranteed Fraud Protection, significantly surpassing the value of orders protected in 2017. As national figures indicated that fewer people shopped over the traditional kickoff weekend, Signifyd saw no let up in the increase in orders processed.

The more significant story in the numbers is the declining influence of red-letter shopping days on brick-and-mortar traffic and sales — and the staggering increase in online sales, which was reflected in Signifyd’s Thanksgiving weekend numbers.

The data points to a monster holiday shopping season

Some numbers, according to Adobe Analytics, to ponder and to put ecommerce’s growth into perspective:

  • Ecommerce will account for 12.3 percent of holiday sales this year, the highest percentage ever.
  • Cyber Monday was the United State’s biggest online shopping day ever, with nearly $8 billion in sales.
  • Black Friday online sales increased by 23.6 percent year-over-year.
  • Thanksgiving online sales were up nearly 30 percent.
  • Mobile sales reached $1 billion on Thanksgiving.
  • On Black Friday, the figure was $2 billion.

Not surprisingly, in-store sales scuffled along. Retail analytics firm RetailNext reported that store traffic was down 5.1 percent over the long holiday kickoff weekend and that sales dropped by 4.7 percent. But then again, the distinction between “in store” and “online” sales is less meaningful than ever.

“The sales and traffic numbers only tell a partial story as retailers with strong digital businesses saw an uptick in the online channels that will positively impact the overall performance of the brand,” Shelley E. Kohan, vice president of retail consulting at RetailNext, said, according to a news release. “The weekend continued to demonstrate the emergence and importance of mobile shopping, and shoppers increasingly used digital devices to shop brands, research products, compare pricing and make purchases.”

Consumers strongly embrace buy online pick up in store

Consumers have concluded that while Thanksgiving and Black Friday shopping might be fun, or part of a family tradition, there will be good deals to be had throughout the holiday season. Shopping in stores on certain days isn’t a must. Moreover, rapid improvements in technology and the experience retailers are offering online mean that consumers can shop in-store and buy online or buy online and pick up in-store.

In fact, Adobe found that buy online pick up in store, or click and collect, orders increased 73 percent from Thanksgiving to Black Friday, confirming consumers’ stated desire to have an in-store pickup option. That stands to reason given that 77 percent of consumers told NTT Data that they were interested in a buy-online-pick-up-in-store option.

Moreover, in a Signifyd survey conducted by Survata, 44 percent of enterprise retailers said that click-and-collect was a competitive imperative, with 12.4 percent saying it was specifically important as a way to compete with Amazon.

It is still early in what eMarketer says will be a $1 trillion shopping season for retailers. But the early numbers provide reason for optimism and plenty of fodder for focusing on how the world of ecommerce is changing.

Photo by Mike Cassidy

Mike Cassidy

Mike Cassidy

Mike is the head of storytelling at Signifyd. A former journalist and a retail geek, he covers ecommerce and the way technology is transforming digital commerce. Contact him at [email protected].