Consumer Analytics

New York -- Overall online sales from Thanksgiving through Sunday were up 14.5% in 2013 over the same period last year, according to IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark. Mobile traffic accounted for 40.9% of all online traffic, up more than 35% percent compared to the same period last year. Mobile sales remained strong, reaching 23.2% of all online sales, up 43.7% year-over-year.

In other findings:

Chicago -- Shoppers visited more stores and spent more money across the days of Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday (Nov. 28 and 29) than they did last year, according to ShopperTrak.

When compared to Thanksgiving and Black Friday last year, brick-and-mortar shopper traffic increased 2.8%, to more than 1.07 billion store visits. Retail sales also increased by 2.3%, as shoppers spent an estimated total of $12.3 billion across the two days.

Boston – The top five brand experience trends for 2014 include retail relevancy and “small data,” according to brand experience agency Jack Morton. The company predicts the following five trends will prove dominant in brand experience during the upcoming year.

New York - Companies seeking to get closer to their customers simply need to remember and acknowledge their birthdays. A new online survey conducted by analytics and marketing technology provider Fulcrum finds that nearly three-out-of-four (74%) consumers who received birthday messages from a company they do business with thought more positively of the company afterward.

Tablets, headphones and gaming hardware were the most frequently purchased consumer electronics products during a weekend which saw more than half of CE sales occur online.

The Consumer Electronics Association said 55% of U.S. adults who bought consumer electronics on Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday did so online, well ahead of the 45% who did so in 2012.

The holiday season has officially kicked off and Clorox is anticipating the messes that will need cleaning. The brand is teaming up with actress Busy Philipps for the third annual Bleach It Away sweepstakes.

Philipps and the Messy Melodies, Clorox's own band of comedic holiday carolers, will hit the streets of New York City to bring holiday “bleachable moments” to life through song.

Stamford, Conn. -- Among Americans who purchased a product that required shipping this year, 80% consider shipping options, including free shipping, to be an important factor in their overall shopping experience, according to a recent survey commissioned by Pitney Bowes Inc. The survey found free shipping is by far more important to Americans surveyed over fast shipping (77% versus 19%).  

Westlake Village, Calif. – Consumers show unique online shopping patterns on Cyber Monday. According to figures released by integrated online marketing company ValueClick, while most online shopping activity occurs between 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. local time on a typical weekday, the heaviest volume shifts to 6:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. local time on Cyber Monday, peaking at 8 p.m.

Kirkland, Wash. -- Consumers actually favor ease-of-use more than the latest device specifications, with many intimidated by jargon and technical data, when choosing a new smartphone.

A new survey from WDS, a Xerox company, also shows that a physical retail store remains the most popular destination for purchasing a new smartphone. Sixty-seven percent of consumers treat it as their primary destination while only 19% of buyers older 60 would buy their device online.

Other notable findings include: 

San Francisco – Seventy-three percent of consumers think that companies are paying more attention to generating sales across multiple channels than they are in delivering a seamless customer service experience across those same channels, according to a global survey of 7,000 consumers in seven countries. Meanwhile, when consumers can’t get an answer or fast response elsewhere, they are falling back to phone support as their primary contact method.