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Electronic-commerce spending from work and home desktop computers from Nov 1-23 hit $17.5 billion, up 11% from $15.8 billion in the same period a year earlier, Internet metrics firm comScore Inc. reported Tuesday.
Most e-commerce spending is charged to credit and debit payment cards, so the early results for the 2014 holiday season bode well for merchant acquirers and payment processors looking for higher transaction volumes. Reston, Va.-based comScore’s estimates exclude auctions and large corporate purchases.
The company predicts desktop e-commerce volumes for the full 2014 holiday season will exceed 2013’s by 14%. Gian Fulgoni, comScore chairman emeritus, says the season can hit that goal despite the early results being 3 percentage points short.
“It is important to note that this gap should be essentially made up with the extra shopping day between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year compared to last year,” Fulgoni said in a news release. “In addition, given the recent strength on certain individual spending days it is likely we’ll see our first ever billion-dollar spending day occur prior to the Thanksgiving holiday, before the heaviest part of the season even kicks off.”
Last week, comScore predicted that total retail consumer online spending would grow 16% this holiday season to $61 billion from last year’s $52.8 billion. That includes the estimated 14% increase in desktop e-commerce to $53.2 billion, and $7.87 billion in mobile commerce, up 25%.
E-commerce spending reflects some of the changes in in-store spending in recent years. For example, in desktop e-commerce, the biggest growth among four of the season’s notable shopping days has been on Thanksgiving, traditionally a day for food and family instead of commerce. Consumers spent an estimated $288 million online for non-travel retail purchases during 2008’s Thanksgiving, but last year they spent $766 million—an increase of 166%. Fulgoni says this year’s online Thanksgiving spending could surpass $1 billion, depending on how strongly consumers react to retailer promotions.
Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, had a five-year retail e-commerce growth rate of 124% in the same period and hit $1.2 billion last year. Cyber Monday led the pack in 2013 with $1.74 billon in desktop online volume, up 105% over five years. Green Monday, usually the second Monday in December, was up 63% in the same period, hitting $1.4 billion last year.
