Online Holiday Shopping in Full Swing: Stats and Trends

The holiday shopping has really picked on the Black Friday (November 27 this year), and continues to grow. The chart on the right shows an increase of affiliate-referred sales within just one affiliate program.

I have noticed a very similar picture across several affiliate programs: a considerable slowdown in sales on the day before Thanksgiving and the Thanksgiving Day itself, and a substantial rise on Black Friday and thereafter. Having spoken with several retailers that traditionally register a defined seasonality of sales, I hear that most are only expecting to see further growth: both in overall sales, and in affiliate-generated ones.

Comparing the November 1-27 period of retail e-commerce spending in 2008 to that of 2009, comScore has reported a 3% increase in sales, where Black Friday alone “saw $595 million in online sales, making it the second heaviest online spending day to date in 2009 and representing an 11-percent increase versus Black Friday 2008”:

It is being stated that consumers are expecting to see more free shipping offers this year, more bargains/coupons, and Amazon is projected to continue driving strong sales — good news both for the merchants that sell on it, and for the affiliates (or is it “associates”?) that are working with Amazon [more here]. Also, according to an NPD Group‘s study, the top 5 categories for the 2009 consumer holiday spending will be: (i) apparel (49%), (ii) toys (34%),  (iii) movies (29%), (iv) books and electronics (28%; I am not sure what these two categories have in common, but on some reason they were grouped together), and (v) peripherals, camcorders and mp3 players (24%) [more here].

The consumers’ spending intentions look as follows:

Finally, we’re witnessing what has already been christened the first “Twitter Christmas” season in history as merchants and affiliates alike are actively tweeting and posting consumer-oriented deals and promos on Twitter, Facebook, and other similar Social Media platforms [more here].