Mobile, tablet conversions spike, Cyber Week brings 3 $1b-plus days

Black Friday is the kickoff to the holiday shopping season in the US, but the big news is now about the week following the kicking. Because comScore reports Cyber Week brought in $6 billion in online sales, and three $1 billion plus shopping days. Cyber Monday (November 28), Tuesday (November 29) and Wednesday (November 30) all brought in more than $1 billion in online sales.

"As the deals from this week expire, it will be important to see the degree to which consumers return to the same retailers to continue their holiday shopping, thereby helping improve retailers' profit margins, or if we experience a pullback in consumer spending - which has occurred in previous years - before promotional offers and spending intensity pick back up in earnest around mid-December," said Gian Fulgoni, comScore Chairman.

Here's how it all breaks down for holiday traffic according to Monetate:
• 2010: 95% traffic increase to websites, 3% increase in mobile traffic and 1% increase in tablet traffic
• 2011: 87% traffic increase to websites, 7.3% increase in mobile, 4.68% increase in tablet traffic
• Conversion rates increased by 5% (desktop), 2% (mobile) and 4% (tablet)
• Add-to-Cart rates increased 11% (desktop), 5.89% (mobile) and 10% (tablet)

Responsys believes much of the increase in traffic and conversions is due to a spike in email messages.

"Over the five day holiday weekend, promotional email volume sent by major retailers was up 27% year over year, with Thanksgiving Day, Black Friday and Cyber Monday all seeing record email volumes," said Chad White, Research Director, Responsys. "Retailers are making email marketing central to their cross-channel marketing efforts this holiday season like never before, and the record online sales results speak for themselves."

Cyber Monday, according to Responsys, saw a year over year email increase of 77%, with 87% of retailers sending marketing messages for the day's sales. More than 80% of retailers also sent Black Friday email messages and 75% sent marketing messages on Thanksgiving day.

Meanwhile Buddy Media research shows the most engaging word for marketers to use in the social space was 'coupon'. They're reporting that engagement rates for branded social messages containing 'coupon' as twice as engaging for consumers; other hot keywords in the social space are 'deal', 'sale', and 'offer'. Researchers also found postings about Black Friday were likely to happen on the day prior to the event while Cyber Monday posts were most likely to happen on the date.

Tags: Buddy Media, comScore, ecommerce, ecommerce trends, holiday shopping 2011, Monetate, Responsys, social commerce