With the holiday season in full swing, it's becoming increasingly clear that consumers prefer to shop anywhere they can access the web this year. The latest figures from comScore show that online holiday spending has already exceeded $17 billion, representing a 12 percent increase over the same period last year.
The firm reports that holiday ecommerce revenues for the first 35 shopping days of November and December total more than $17.5 billion. This indicates a trend toward online holiday shopping, as consumers spent just $15.7 billion online during the same period in 2009.
ComScore reports that sales jumped this past week, with four individual days garnering more than $800 million each in online ad spend. This fits Brafton's earlier report that online spending was expected to climb during the first week of December – known as "Peak Week."
Yet, officials for the firm believe the best is yet to come with respect to online sales. "We can expect to see activity begin to pick up again next week as we get into the middle part of December when online buying typically peaks."
With this in mind, marketers will want to continue their campaigning into the New Year. One strategy for catching clicks and cash may be to advertise products and services on Facebook through the holidays. As Brafton has reported, one-quarter of U.S. social users say ads on social media impact their purchase decisions.
