With the holiday season having concluded, market analysts can now look at the data as a whole in order to make predictions for both the next holiday season as well as e-commerce in 2018. While pre-Christmas sales surpassed expectations, both physical retail locations and e-commerce sites saw increases in traffic and revenue. According to data from Salesforce, Dec. 26 saw a 19 percent increase in traffic, 5 percent higher than the year before.
Retailers are seeing the beginnings of a new trend arising. Many Americans now utilize the day after Christmas to shop while still on break from work. During what was previously known as a “retail lag” in which stores would attempt to get rid of outdated inventory, stores are now flooded with post-holiday shoppers. 40 percent of consumers shopped the day after Christmas, according to a survey from Deloitte.
“This week has, over the years, been gradually assuming more and more importance in the overall mix. Retailers want to get a second bite at the apple.”
– Craig Johnson, president of Customer Growth Partners
E-commerce continued to outpace retail in volume and growth. Amazon recently announced over 4 million consumers started a free trial or began paying for an Amazon Prime subscription in one week alone during the holiday season, as reported by Digital Commerce 360.
There was an unexpected rise in traffic during the New Year’s as well. For instance, e-commerce traffic across the top 25 retailers in the U.S. rose by 15 percent on New Year’s Eve and 32 percent on New Year’s Day, according to data from Verizon Communications Inc.
However, e-commerce and physical retail locations have shifted into a mutualistic relationship of sorts. Many consumers use physical retail locations to make returns on items that were purchased online. For instance, Kohls began accepting returns of certain Amazon items at 82 of their stores.
Dirxion online catalogs offer businesses the ability to tap into shopping trends and habits during both the holiday season and throughout the year. Dirxion online catalogs also serve as a complementary product to any e-commerce operation. Both versatile and optimized with HTML5, Dirxion online catalogs ensure cross-platform and multi-browser performance standards are met.
