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RAPAPORT... U.S. online retail sales jumped 20.6 percent year on year for Cyber Monday, which was December 2, according to cloud-based data collected by IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark. While a hard total was not provided, IBM claimed that Cyber Monday's total sales represented the highest single-day value in history. However, the average order value fell 1 percent to $128.77, according to IBM. Digital matrix firm comScore Inc., which tallies online sales and competes with IBM in measuring ecommerce data, reported that Cyber Monday sales in 2012 reached $1.5 billion, the highest figure to date for a single day but it has not yet provided a sales total for December 2, 2013. IBM observed that retail sales that were transacted through a mobile device on Cyber Monday this year rose 55.4 percent year on year to exceed 17 percent of all online sales. Cyber Monday also capped the highest five-day online sales period to date – from Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday – which grew 16.5 percent compared with the same period in 2012. Smartphones drove 19.7 percent of all online traffic on Cyber Monday compared with 11.5 percent through tablets, IBM found. However, tablets drove 11.7 percent of all online transaction compared with only 5.5 percent conducted through smartphones. On average, tablet users spent $126.30 per order compared with $106.49 for smartphone users. In terms of social networking's influence on consumer purchases, on average shoppers who were referred from Facebook to a retailer's website spent 6 percent more per order than shoppers referred through Pinterest. The average order placed from the Facebook referral was $97.81 versus Pinterest's average order value of $92.40. Facebook referrals converted into sales at a rate 38 percent higher than that of Pinterest, according to IBM. Other observations from the data concluded that online shoppers spent more per transaction on Black Friday ($135.27) compared with Cyber Monday, and mobile sales and traffic decreased between Black Friday and Cyber Monday as shoppers went back to work and school following the holiday weekend. Cyber Monday sales at department stores surged 70.3 percent year on year and the average transaction value jumped 18.7 percent to $161.83. Sales of apparel on Cyber Monday rose 22.5 percent; however, the average order dropped 6.9 percent to $102.83 compared with one year ago.
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