3 e-shopping takeaways from the 2016 holiday shopping season

E-shoppers around the globe are taking a breather after the hectic 2016 holiday shopping season. While shoppers may be cooling their heels and enjoying their recent purchases, it is a great time of year for eSellers to examine what happened in 2016 and what lessons can be learned and applied to selling strategies for the New Year.

#1: China’s Singles Day is a Chart Topper

November 11 was the highlight of the e-commerce shopping year, with sales on that day ringing up to a whopping $17.8 billion. To put that figure in perspective, Forbes points out: “If Singles’ Day were a country and we ranked sales of that one day against annual e-commerce sales of countries around the world, Alibaba’s Singles’ Day would rank as the 11th largest country in the world, just ahead of Brazil and just behind South Korea, according to statistics from market-research firm eMarketer.”

An impressive 27% of purchases were from international brands and merchants.

Takeaway: If you do not have a Singles Day strategy in place, 2017 is a great year to consider how you can target that booming market.

#2: Black Friday is Not Just about Brick and Mortar Anymore

PracticalEcommerce.com reports that, at $3.34 billion, U.S. e-commerce sales enjoyed a 21.6% year over year growth on Black Friday. The largest area of e-commerce growth was in electronics and appliances, with a 27 percent increase from sales in those categories from 2015.

Meanwhile, U.S. sales on Cyber Monday came in at a respectable $3.45 billion, still edging out Black Friday’s e-commerce figures as was to be expected. With a 12.1% increase over 2015 sales, Cyber Monday became the largest online sales day ever in the U.S.

Takeaway: While Black Friday may traditionally be considered as a great day for brick and mortar stores, it is becoming an increasingly lucrative day for eSellers as well. Therefore, eSellers must give consideration to how to take advantage of both Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the coming year.

#3: Mobile Comes on Strong

Mobile accounted for 82% of sales on Singles Day, highlighting the significance that Chinese shoppers put on the convenience and enhanced customer experience provided by eSellers who optimize for mobile.

Similarly, Thanksgiving Day saw a great rise in mobile, with 53 percent of all Thanksgiving Day sales completed on a mobile device.

Mobile was the big winner on Black Friday and Cyber Monday as well. While 64% of Black Friday e-commerce sales originated from desktops, 2016 was the first year ever to see Black Friday sales of over $1 billion from mobile devices. On Cyber Monday, 31% of all e-commerce sales occurred on mobile, for a total of $1.07 billion.

Takeaway: Mobile is likely to continue to grow as the preferred way to shop online. If you have not already done so, make 2017 the year that you optimize your e-commerce site for mobile.

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