US Holiday Digital Spending Projected To Hit $70B

‘Tis the season for eCommerce.

New research shows that shoppers are projected to spend $70 billion online this holiday season.

Analytics company comScore noted that this is a 14 percent gain compared to last year, with mobile commerce totaling $11.7 billion of retail spending, growing at a rate of 47 percent versus last season and worth 17 percent of total digital commerce.

“Last year, many retailers opened stores on Thanksgiving Day with unexpected results, as some consumers shifted their store visits from Black Friday to Thanksgiving Day but reduced their spending rate,” said Gian Fulgoni, executive chairman emeritus of comScore. “The good news is that online buying more than compensated for the softness of in-store sales, with growth rates of more than 25 percent during those two days. We anticipate that happening again this year. In addition, we expect Cyber Monday — the first Monday after the Thanksgiving holiday weekend — to surpass $3 billion in online sales and become the heaviest online spending day in history for the sixth straight year, with roughly half a billion of those dollars coming from mobile devices.”

MasterCard’s Sarah Quinlan disagreed. “The store is still king,” Quinlan stated, emphasizing the importance of creating a meaningful and unforgettable experience for consumers within the store. MasterCard’s Omnishopper report drives home the point that eCommerce, despite exponential growth, still remains only a small part of total retail sales.

However, Quinlan added that online is still a go-to place for research and recommendations. “What we do know is that 70 percent of Americans actually do look online, either while in the store or before they go shopping, which makes that presence on the Web critical because it’s curating an entire shopping experience for the client,” Quinlan said.