eCommerce Did Brisk Business This Holiday Season

Holiday shopping may have gotten off to a slow start with uncertainty surroundings the U.S. election and concerns over the surprise Trump victory, but that seems to have changed, at least for online retailers, with the growth rate for eCommerce sites during the holiday season surpassing sales in physical stores.

According to a report highlighting holiday shopping season results, eCommerce operators saw their largest Cyber Monday ever this year, with sales surpassing $3.3 billion, according to Adobe. Almost every day after Cyber Monday online retailers saw sales of more than $1 billion. In 2010 Cyber Monday reached sales of $1 billion, underscoring just how many consumers now shop online.

Among the not surprising beneficiaries of this surge in online shopping is Amazon. Citing data from Slice Intelligence, the report noted that Amazon captured close to half of all online sales this holiday season. Another trend that picked up during the holiday season: mobile driving internet purchases. According to the report, consumers are more willing than ever to use a mobile phone to purchase items on key holiday dates. Through early December, Adobe said half of web traffic and 30 percent of all retail sales were from mobile websites.

At the same time that eCommerce sites were enjoying brisk sales during the holiday season, physical retailers weren’t as merry. The report noted that several retailers said they weren’t meeting sales targets for the holiday season. What’s more, store traffic has been declining over the years. How physical stores fared during the holiday season won’t be evident until retailers start reporting their earnings for the three-month period ending in December. There is still time for retailers to rake in the sales given that the week between Christmas and New Year’s can account for 10 percent of all holiday sales.