Winter Holidays

Reston, Va. -  Although full results aren’t in yet, holiday e-commerce sales in 2014 look like a healthy improvement from 2013. According to data from comScore, for the holiday season Nov. 1 through Dec. 21, $48.3 billion has been spent online, marking a 15% increase from the corresponding days the previous year.   

It remains to be seen how Big Lots performed this holiday season, but the closeout retailer’s catchy and original television advertising drew accolades from industry experts.

In a recent piece in Ad Age, Big Lot’s holiday campaign “Nailed It” was singled out by writer Ken Wheaton as the top campaign of the season.

Didn’t get your Christmas gifts delivered on time? Don’t blame the major carriers this year, according to a new study from Kurt Salmon.

UPS, FedEx and the U.S. Postal Service held up their end of the bargain this year when it came to delivering packages in time for Christmas, according to an analysis by the consulting firm. However, a troubling 13 percent of last minute e-commerce orders did not reach recipients in time for Christmas versus a 15 percent failure rate last year.

Retailers’ with robust mobile e-commerce capabilities were able to cash in on Christmas Day as sales increased 8.3% compared to the prior year, according to the latest update from IBM’s Digital Analytics Benchmark report.

In addition to the 8.3 percent in online Christmas Day sales, IBM said mobile device traffic increased 18.6 percent to account for 57.1 percent of all Christmas day e-commerce traffic. Mobile sales increased 20.4 percent and accounted for 34.8 percent of all online sales, according to IBM.

New York - Christmas Day saw both strong online and mobile sales. Key Christmas Day trends reported by the IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark include an 8.3% year-over-year increase in online sales.   In addition, mobile traffic accounted for 57.1% of all online traffic on Christmas Day, an increase of 18.6% from the prior year. Mobile sales accounted for 34.8% of all online sales on Christmas Day, an increase of 20.4% year-over-year.  

New York - The day after Christmas (Dec. 26) posted the highest traffic for online shopping, with 125 points, since the 2014 holiday shopping season began. According to Verizon Retail Index data, year-over-year, traffic attributed to online shopping was on par (125) with the same day in 2013.  

New York - Retail sales in the United States increased 5.5% from the day after Thanksgiving through Christmas Eve, fueled by demand for women's apparel, jewelry and dining out, according to MastyerCard Advisors. Spending Pulse holiday report. Consumer electronics, which many industry analysts had predicted would be among the strongest categories this holiday season, was actually among the weakest, according to the report, with sales "basically flat" from Black Friday to Dec. 24 and in negative territory starting on Nov. 1. 

Austin, Texas – Consumers who didn’t get what they wanted for the holidays are taking matters into their own hands. According to new research from digital deals site RetailMeNot, 81% of consumers plan to shop end-of-year sales.   Of these shoppers taking advantage of post-holiday savings, more than half (63%) plan to shop for themselves. Millennials are especially interested in after-Christmas sales, as 92% of respondents 18 to 34 years old said they plan to shop during this time.