Final Christmas push propels US online holiday spending to US$35.3bn

4 Jan 2012

RESTON, US: comScore, a leader in measuring the digital world, has reported holiday season US retail e-commerce spending for the first 56 days of the November - December 2011 holiday season.

For the holiday season-to-date, US$35.3 billion has been spent online, marking a 15% increase versus the corresponding days last year. The most recent week (ending 25 December) witnessed US$2.8 billion in spending, an increase of 16% versus the corresponding week last year.

2011 Holiday Season To Date vs. Corresponding Days* in 2010 Non-Travel (Retail) Spending Excludes Auctions and Large Corporate Purchases Total US - Home & Work Locations (Source: comScore, Inc)
	Millions (US$)
	2010	2011	Percent Change
November 1 - December 26	US$30,591	US$35,274	15%
Thanksgiving Day (Nov. 24)	US$407	US$479	18%
Black Friday (Nov. 25)	US$648	US$816	26%
Thanksgiving Weekend (Nov. 26-27)	US$886	US$1,031	16%
Cyber Monday (Nov. 28)	US$1,028	US$1,251	22%
Green Monday (Dec. 12)	US$954	US$1,133	19%
Free Shipping Day (Dec. 16)	US$942	US$1,072	14%
Week Ending Dec. 25	US$2,450	US$2,831	16%

*Corresponding days based on corresponding shopping days (2 November through 27 December 2010)

"Holiday e-commerce spending has remained strong throughout the season, and we have now reached a record US$35 billion in US online sales for the season-to-date," said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni. "We can now say with certainty that the US$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 (1 Nov - 26 Dec), Digital Content & Subscriptions accounted for 2.8% of retail e-commerce sales, but on Christmas Day the category accounted for more than 20% of sales. Consistent with past years, comScore expects sales for this category of products to remain elevated throughout the entire week following Christmas Day.