The US Economy growth rate at 1.6% -2% is
in marked contrast to the average 20% growth rate of online sales since
Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday today according to IBM. Black
Friday when US retailers turn from the red (negative or losses) to positive
(black or profits) was remarkable this year for online sales that crossed 1 Billion $ for the
first time. And today Cyber Monday which is supposed to be for online sales,
sales are up 26% with iPhones and iPads
taking the lead in driving traffic.
Surprisingly “Social Sales" (see last point in IBM report summary)
including Facebook, YouTube ,Twitter and LinkedIn accounted for
only 0.34% sales and was down 35% from 2011. In other words, folks would be
getting influenced by social media for brand awareness but when it comes to the
online buying decision – social is just one of the touch points along with
organic search, paid search and any other brand building exercises you might be
doing in the offline world. Just for comparison, Black Friday offline sales were
expected to be up 3.1%, more in line with US Economic Growth of 2%.
Why is this major difference between offline and online sales growth figures?
Consider that since Thanksgiving the numbers indicate that online sales
are at least six times offline sales. Here are
some reasons:
- Younger folks comfortable with buying online are now in
the market. - These younger people are at ease with buying through an
App on their iPhone. - The tight economy calls for comparison shopping made
easier with easy search through Google,Yahoo,Bing and search engines.
Given that offline sales was
expected to grow by about 3.1 % ,
more in line with the US economic growth at 2% it is remarkable to see that
online sales grew by at least six times this
Thanksgiving weekend compared to last year. This is a radical shift in consumer
buying behavior and how Internet is affecting business. Contact StratoServe.