One of our partners, Channel Intelligence, has been releasing some interesting retail sales figures around the start to the big holiday shopping season.
Their clients include many of the world’s best known retailers and manufacturers, and their database manages the flow of these companies’ products through channels like shopping engines, display ads, affiliate networks, paid search, etc.
Three of the key services they offer are: 1) storefront/webcart services, which help retailers and manufacturers deliver content and streamline the online purchase process, 2) where-to-buy services, which show consumers where to buy products when they are shopping on manufacturer websites, and 3) shopping channel management services, which manage advertising and product data fed to shopping engines, paid search, Google product search, affiliate programs, etc.
Here are some data for sales trends seen through these key services for the start to the 2009 holiday shopping season:
• Shopping channel management – increase of 2.6% in average order value across CI retailers, with biggest day by sales volume on Thanksgiving Day, up 61 percent over 2008, followed by Black Friday up 61% and Cyber Monday up 73%.
• Storefront/webcart – Black Friday brought the greatest sales volume, up 36% over 2008, followed by Cyber Monday, up 51%, and Thanksgiving Day, up 35%. These sales increases weathered a 7% decline in average order value due to decreases in average selling prices as consumers are buying more but spending less per item.
• Online where-to-buy service – average order value increased 20%, while Cyber Monday brought in the greatest sales volume, up 4% over 2008, followed by Black Friday, up 51%, and Thanksgiving Day, up 23%.
For more comments on these trends, see the most recent CI press release here.
See their reports on Cyber Monday sales and Thanksgiving/Black Friday overall performance.