Mobile devices dominated the holiday shopping season, outpacing the PC in driving traffic to e-commerce sites and being used as shopping companions in physical stores. In addition, mobile commerce also grew significantly from 2014 (59 percent), though perhaps not as much as one might have anticipated.
According to online measurement firm comScore, total digital commerce (mobile and PC) reached $69.08 billion for period the between November 1 and December 31. The firm had forecast digital shopping revenues of $70.1 billion for the two-month holiday shopping season.
Mobile exceeded the comScore holiday forecast, but desktop spending fell about $2 billion below the firm’s estimates. The single largest online shopping day was once again Cyber Monday (November 30), bringing in roughly $2.3 billion in receipts.
Much has been made of online retail surging and traditional retail suffering. But that “either/or” analysis is simplistic. Among online-only players, it’s really only Amazon and a couple of others that saw significant sales growth. The rest of online shopping gains came largely from traditional retailers’ online divisions.
In other words, traditional retailers’ e-commerce operations (and Amazon) are cannibalizing in-store sales. Yet traditional retail brands and stores support e-commerce by giving consumers the confidence to buy online with the expectation that they can return items locally if they don’t work out.
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