Green Monday Gets the Green Light From Consumers

December 12, 2012

This article is included in these additional categories:

Digital | Financial Services | Mobile Phone | Retail & E-Commerce | Uncategorized

The holiday season has already begun to break online shopping records, and the latest figures from comScore suggest that this week may set new peaks also. Green Monday (the second Monday in December, which has tended to be the among the heaviest online spending days of the season) saw $1.275 billion in retail e-commerce spending, up 13% year-over-year and exceeding a prior forecast from Adobe.

That strong start to the week might signal a new record for the week overall, according to comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni, who notes a “tendency for heavy spending to continue late into the week of Green Monday and right up until Free Shipping Day, which this year falls on December 17.” That would propel the week to the biggest online spending one in history.

With $1.275 billion in retail e-commerce spending, Green Monday became the third-heaviest spending day of the season so far, behind Cyber Monday ($1.465 billion) and Tuesday, December 4 ($1.362 billion). The 13% year-on-year growth was driven by a 7% rise in the number of buyers (to 9 million) and a 6% increase in the amount of spend per buyer (to $141). That increase in spending per buyer was more a result of an increased number of transactions per buyer (+5%) than a rise in spending per transaction (+2%), which comScore suggests is an indication that consumers are looking to purchase from various retailers to benefit from promotions and discounts.

Meanwhile, data from the Chase Holiday Pulse finds Green Monday’s e-commerce sales volume to have grown by a slightly more muted 10.7% year-over-year, with merchant deals and discounts behind that rise.

Digital Content & Subscriptions Still the Fastest-Growing Category

For the holiday season-to-date (November 1 – December 10), consumers have spent $23.2 billion online, a 13% rise compared to the corresponding days last year, per comScore. Some product categories in particular have benefited from this increase. Chief among them, digital content and subscriptions, the fastest-rising category on Cyber Monday, up 22% for the season-to-date. Also seeing strong growth so far this season have been toys (18%), video game consoles and accessories (15%), consumer electronics (15%), and computer hardware (14%).

The digital content and subscriptions category is mainly comprised of digital book, music, and video downloads, while the consumer electronics and computer hardware categories owe their growth to strong sales of smartphones and tablets, respectively.

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