The holiday shopping season was a successful one for retailers, as it saw a 13% sales growth in ecommerce sales over 2016, according to a study by NetElixir. The study revealed that ecommerce sales increased 10.43% from 2015.
Of all the retail categories analyzed, mobile sale saw the modest gains. The biggest mcommerce increase was 11% in the cosmetics category. The apparel category saw a 2% mcommerce increase, gifting saw a 3% mcommerce increase, while electronics, food and gourmet categories saw a slight dip in mcommerce sales of 1%.
While the gains in mcommerce were modest, mobile visits rose sharply across most categories. The biggest increase was in the apparel category, which saw an increase of 32% of mobile visits. Other categories saw single digit increases of mobile visits, which indicates that mobile was used for browsing and product research.
“This holiday season data shows overall positive growth,” said Udayan Bose, CEO of NetElixir. “Consumers are continuing to move to online shopping for their holiday purchases and are also using their mobile devices more for purchasing in specific retail categories like cosmetics. With the mobile visit data trending in a steeper upward direction, we can expect that mcommerce figures will be higher next holiday season.”
The study analyzed the ecommerce sales data by U.S. regions and found the highest increase was in the south with a 24.3% increase. The next highest was found in the west with 12.7% and in the central U.S. with 12.2% and in the northeast with 11.4%.
Average order values saw the biggest lift this year with an increase of 19.4%. Conversions increased by 15.6%, impressions increased by 12.8% and average cost-per-click went up by 14.2%.
“The increase in average order values was significant this holiday season and retailers should be taking note of this figure in particular,” continued Bose. “This dramatic increase implies that consumers are growing more comfortable making expensive purchases online. The overall positive trend of the other search marketing metrics indicate that digital marketing is growing in effectiveness, leading consumers to the brands and products they are interested to purchase.”