2014 Ecommerce Holiday Shopping: Tis’ the Season for Online Business

Ecommerce Holiday Shopping - The Season for Online Shopping

Though 2014 is coming to a close, 9 of the best online shopping days of the year are still to come, and online retailers still have much to do before the year is over. More shoppers are avoiding the craziness of the Black Friday shopping experience by ordering online instead, and the brave ones that do go to brick-and-mortar stores will use their mobile devices while there to check prices, read reviews, and seek as much information as they can before making a purchase. This means that more than ever before, ecommerce storefronts should be just as ready for a massive influx of customers during the holiday season as any offline store.

Much has changed in the digital landscape since the 2013 online holiday shopping season, but this year’s online shopping season will be bigger in just about every way, and the importance of capturing as many sales as possible during this period is as important as ever. To help you out we’ve compiled an infographic that will show you the numbers behind the most popular eCommerce shopping days for this upcoming holiday season.

Ecommerce Holiday Shopping The Season for Online Shopping
With the best online shopping day of last year, Cyber Monday, right around the corner, now is the time for online retailers to make sure their website is optimized to handle the increased traffic and online sales that come with the holiday season. In particular, this means making sure that your online presence is able to cater to mobile users, whether through a responsive website or mobile app. With 19% of digital sales set to come from mobile devices in 2014, and 18.3% and 22.2% of all Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales projected to come from mobile devices respectively, not having an optimized mobile presence means that your business is missing out on key revenue generating opportunities.

If you have a business that has a brick and mortar location, a mobile presence, and a website, keep in mind that 90% of customers are expecting a consistent user experience across all channels and devices this holiday season – a 17% increase from last year. If your business doesn’t have consistent branding across online and offline channels, time is running out to get your brand presence properly prepared for the influx of digital holiday shoppers. Your online business should be structured to make it easy for potential customers to find what they are looking for across all channels, and if that isn’t currently the case your business could be losing customers to competitors who have taken the time to properly prepare for the 2014 holiday season.

Which statistics were the most surprising to you? Let us know in the comments section below.