E-commerce traffic from mobile devices steadily dropped from New Year’s Eve through Sunday.

Online shopping momentum from the holiday shopping season carried into the new year for retailers.

That’s according to the latest edition of the Verizon Retail Index. Verizon tracks desktop and mobile traffic across its networks, with average daily traffic over the course of the year represented as a baseline value of 100. Verizon’s data shows traffic grew steadily from New Year’s Eve through Sunday, Jan. 3

  • New Year’s Eve 2015: Up 16% over the daily average for 2015
  • New Year’s Day 2016: Up 28%
  • Jan. 2: Up 32%
  • Jan. 3: Up 36%

Here’s how that compares to the increases Verizon reported last year for those four days:

  • New Year’s Eve 2014: Up 20%
  • New Year’s Day 2015: Up 30%
  • Jan. 2, 2015: Up 30%
  • Jan. 3, 2015: Up 34%.

Michele Dupré, group vice president of retail, hospitality, and distribution for Verizon Enterprise Solutions, says the traffic spikes indicate that shoppers responded to retailers’ online promotions.

“Retailers enticed consumers with time-bound promotions to create a sense of urgency, and consumers with extra time on their hands due to the long holiday weekend appeared to respond in droves,” she says.

advertisement

While desktop traffic saw a spike, mobile traffic started strong before dropping slightly below the average for those four days this year.

Verizon’s data shows that New Year’s Eve traffic from mobile devices was up 4% over the average for the year, before dropping 2% below the average on New Year’s Day. On Jan. 2, it was up 1% and then up 3% on Jan. 3.

In the days before the New Year holiday weekend of Dec. 31-Jan. 3, wireline broadband traffic generated by e-commerce shopping increased at levels similar to last year, Verizon says.

Traffic increases were as follows:

advertisement
  • Dec. 28: Up 26%
  • Dec. 29: Up 25%
  • Dec. 30: Up 23%

Mobile traffic attributed to mobile commerce also was higher than usual leading up to New Year’s Eve, posting a 6% increase by Dec. 30, but mobile traffic surged by a somewhat higher rate during the same time in 2014, Verizon says.

“E-commerce activity has continued to be very strong this week as many consumers take advantage of the book-ended holiday weekends and time off from work to shop for end-of-season deals,” Mark Sidwell, director of retail mobile solutions sales for Verizon said of last week’s data. “Retailers also appear to be effectively reaching consumers with attractive offers that are likely to continue in the coming days as the season winds down.”

Favorite