U.S. Consumers spent $35.3 billion during this year’s holiday season, up 15% from the same period last year. Shoppers also spent a total of $2.8 billion during the week ended December 25th, up 16% from the same week in 2010, comScore reported. “Holiday e-commerce spending has remained strong throughout the season, and we have now reached a record $35 billion in U.S. online sales for the season-to-date,” said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni, noting that the record $1.25 billion spent on Cyber Monday represented the heaviest online spending day for the second straight year. ComScore also said that there were a total of nine days during the holiday season during which consumers spent more than $1 billion. The research firm noticed a spike in digital content and subscription sales on Christmas Day, no doubt as a result of consumers loading up their new tablets, computers and phones with applications. Digital content and subscription purchases typically counted for 2.8% of all e-commerce sales during the holiday season, but that figure jumped to more than 20% on Christmas Day. ComScore’s full press release follows after the break.
Christmas Day Sees Significant Spike in Digital Content & Subscription Sales as Consumers Load Up New Tablets, e-Readers and Music Devices
RESTON, Va., Dec. 28, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — comScore (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today reported holiday season retail e-commerce spending for the first 56 days of the November – December 2011 holiday season. For the holiday season-to-date,$35.3 billion has been spent online, marking a 15-percent increase versus the corresponding days last year. The most recent week (ending Dec. 25) witnessed $2.8 billion in spending, an increase of 16 percent versus the corresponding week last year.
2011 Holiday Season To Date vs. Corresponding Days* in 2010Non-Travel (Retail) Spending Excludes Auctions and Large Corporate Purchases
Total U.S. – Home & Work Locations
Source: comScore, Inc.
Millions ($) 2010 2011 Percent
ChangeNovember 1 – December 26 $30,591 $35,274 15% Thanksgiving Day (Nov. 24) $407 $479 18% Black Friday (Nov. 25) $648 $816 26% Thanksgiving Weekend (Nov. 26-27) $886 $1,031 16% Cyber Monday (Nov. 28) $1,028 $1,251 22% Green Monday (Dec. 12) $954 $1,133 19% Free Shipping Day (Dec. 16) $942 $1,072 14% Week Ending Dec. 25 $2,450 $2,831 16% *Corresponding days based on corresponding shopping days (November 2 thru December 27, 2010)
“Holiday e-commerce spending has remained strong throughout the season, and we have now reached a record $35 billion in U.S. online sales for the season-to-date,” said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni. “We can now say with certainty that the $1.25 billion spent on Cyber Monday will rank it as the heaviest online spending day of the season for the second consecutive year, but we should also note that it was accompanied by nine other billion dollar spending days this year.”
Christmas Day Sees Huge Spike in Digital Content & Subscription Sales
One of the interesting e-commerce phenomena occurring over the past several years is the dramatic increase in Christmas Day purchases of Digital Content & Subscriptions, a retail category that includes digital downloads of music, TV, movies, e-books and apps. Not surprisingly, as many consumers get new smartphones, tablets, e-readers and digital content gift certificates for Christmas, they spend Christmas Day loading up their devices with new content.
On an average day during the 2011 holiday season-to-date (Nov. 1 – Dec. 26), Digital Content & Subscriptions accounted for 2.8 percent of retail e-commerce sales, but on Christmas Day the category accounted for more than 20 percent of sales. Consistent with past years, comScore expects sales for this category of products to remain elevated throughout the entire week following Christmas Day.
