This is how important Christmas is to eCommerce

We all know that people buy a mountain of products at Christmas, far more as a percentage of the their buying throughout the rest of the year.

Miss the Christmas period, and you miss a big portion of your sales and revenue for the year.

Indeed, we see a lot of activity and thought given to Christmas by our eCommerce clients during the period, and a commensurate spike in sales.

How did 2010 compare to 2009 and the rest?

Pretty well by all accounts.

This article on eConsultancy (a website I highly recommend anyone into eCommerce follows) provides a nice compendium of some of the key statistics.

They are from the UK, though the trends should be assumed to be applicable to Australia, albeit starting from a lower base.

Some of the key highlights (citing UK shoppers):

• 44% of users upped their online spending for Christmas 2010 when compared to 2009: this might also be a reflection of the GFC.

• 22% of users accessed the Internet on their phones.

• 30% of users used the Internet to shop on Boxing Day.

The illustrated-graph associated with the article also shows a breakdown of performance, growth and the most important days for shopping.

In 2010, it was Cyber Monday, a slightly unknown term for Australians. Cyber Monday is the Monday after Thanksgiving, where online retailers offer significant discounts and bargains to online buyers.

We might not see this happen in Australia, due to the fact that we don’t really celebrate Thanksgiving in Australia.

I reckon Boxing Day will increasingly be the day to watch. The Australian online retailing industry will quickly want to focus consumers on a day of bargains and savings, and we all know Boxing Day to be that day.