How Was Shopping Season In 2012 For Smbs

By Author: Jenny Knight
Total Articles: 34
Comment this article

It is difficult to trace small and medium businesses direct sales. In case of online sales, there is some data available from different sources. Now we will look into how the SMBs are performed in the year 2012 holiday shopping season.

Small online merchant holiday sales of 2012
According to a case study, the holiday sales in 2012 were up by 15.2% and the transaction volume was 24.3% up. This was for the period between October 29th to December 25th. According to ComScore, there is an increase of 16.2% in holiday sales for online stores in 2012. With an 8.4% increase for 2012, Mastercard was more conservative in their future trend.

Lexiconn released a report on small e-commerce stores. They have considered 83 stores’ data in 2011 and 2012. The time period is same as October 29th to December 25th. According to this report, sales were up by 13.5%, the total number of orders was up by 10%, and the AOV (average order value) was up by 2.3% in 2012.

Biggest online spending days of 2012
Adobe has given a list of biggest online spending days of 2012 in the United States. The Cyber Monday showed the ...
... highest at nearly $2 billion. Black Friday is in second place with $1.57 dollars. On the Thanksgiving day United States spent a total of $1.34 billion and is in the third place. December 3rd had $1.04 billion sales, Green Monday showed $1 billion and the Free Shopping Day with $0.93 are in the next places.

Volusion report on SMB e-commerce performance
According to Volusion, small and medium business merchants experienced 19.6% year over year. This analysis is compared for the first half of 2012 and the first half of 2013. SMBs’ online sales have increased across industries such as sporting goods (+35.60%), industrial equipment (+34.18%), food and beverages (+22.08%), automotive (+17.77) and electronics (+17.60%). Growth of online sales of SMBs in computers (-16.28%), jewelry (-3.87%) and non-profit (-2.63%) industries slowed down.

Online spending in US in 2011 and 2012
ComScore, an Internet technology company released retail e-commerce spending totals of 2012. According to this report, with an increase of 14% from 2011 to 2012 during November and December holiday season $42.3 billion was spent for online shopping in the United States.

Following are the total retail spending.

2011 and 2012 holiday season
During November 1st to December 31st season from 2011 ($37,170 million) to 2012 ($42,286 million) 14% rise in sales.
The Thanksgiving day recorded 32% increase from 2011’s $479 million to 2012 $633 million.
In 2011 on Black Friday $816 million spent and on 2012 it is 1,042 million. It is 28% increase in sales.
17% increase on Cyber Monday from 2011 ($1,251) to 2012 ($1,465).
Green Monday recorded 13% increase from 2011’s $1,133 million to to 2012 $1,275 million.
2011 and 2012 weekly online holiday season spending (November and December)
Week 1 – 16% increase (2011 – $2,802 million to 2012 $3,261 million)
Week 2 – 15% increase (2011 – $3,386 million to 2012 $3,890 million)
Week 3 – 17% increase (2011 – $3,822 million to 2012 $4,462 million)
Week 4 – 17% increase (2011 – $4,094 million to 2012 $4,778 million)
Week 5 – 11% increase (2011 – $5,805 million to 2012 $6,437 million)
Week 6 – 9% increase (2011 – $6,113 million to 2012 $6,634 million)
Week 7 – 12% increase (2011 – $6,286 million to 2012 $7,019 million)
Week 8 – 53% increase (2011 – $2,831 million to 2012 $4,328 million)
Week 9 – 1% increase (2011 – $2,499 million to 2012 $2,530 million)
Top 10 US online spending days of 2012
Cyber Monday (November 26) – $1,465 Millions
December 4 – $1,362 Millions
Green Monday (December 10) – $1,275 Millions
November 27 – $1,263 Millions
December 11 – $1,220 Millions
December 14 – $1,219 Millions
December 13 – $1,135 Millions
December 3 – $1,117 Millions
November 28 – $1,110 Millions
December 5 – $1,051 Millions
Holiday retail sales are likely to increase in 2013 – ShopperTrack estimation
According to ShopperTrack, retail sales are forecast to rise 2.4% in holiday season of November and December 2013. Historically, store shopper traffic and holiday sales account for 20% of annual retail activity. ShopperTrack anticipates that this year the sales will rise, but the total retail store traffic will slightly decrease when compared to 2012.

The reports are showing that there is a good growth in online shopping in holiday for SMBs seasons over the years. For the year 2013, the trend is likely to be similar.

Small and Medium Business Corner website serves SMB owners in providing information which is insightful, useful and actionable. One can find info about SMBs in various sectors like health, science, shopping, society, finance, technology and many others. Site provides honest opinions, tips and issues related to small and medium-sized businesses. The information provided on SMB-corner not only covers business angles of SMB owners but also helps them with tips in their regular day-to-day lives and guide them in the right direction.