Online sales up 15.2% for the season

New York -- Research results released Wednesday by Chase found that online holiday shopping sales for the season rose 15.2% year-over-year.



By event, the Chase Holiday Pulse reported that from Black Friday Nov. 23 through Friday, Nov. 30, year-over-year sales increased 22.5% and transactions increased 32.7%.



Green Monday kicked off the busiest week of the season: In terms of total transaction volume, Pulse showed that the period from Dec 10th (Green Monday) to Sunday, Dec 16th was the busiest seven-day period of the holiday shopping season, with year-over-year transaction up 16.6%.



In 2012, the ‘showrooming’ phenomenon went mainstream, as the survey showed that consumers used their mobile devices to research items they saw in-store, but then purchased online.



Heavy promotional activity from merchants during the holiday season was especially evident this year, with merchants attracting more online shoppers with email, online coupons, and discounts. To illustrate this, Pulse data for the weekend between Black Friday and Cyber Monday reflected an average sales growth of 38.3% year-over-year.



Average Ticket Price continued to trend downward with year-to-date overall season results down 7.3% driven in part by additional free shipping offers from merchants and continued customer demand for low-ticket digital content.