Best Buy, Target and Walmart generated a higher conversion rate on Thanksgiving Day compared with Black Friday.

Large online merchants including marketplace Etsy Inc. and Target Corp. posted significant year-over-year conversion rate increases throughout the Cyber 5 period that spans from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday, according to marketing analytics firm Jumpshot.

Jumpshot’s analysis is based on its review of more than 160 billion clicks made monthly by 100 million consumers globally. Jumpshot says U.S. consumers comprise a significant portion of its panel. Jumpshot tracks the clickstream of consumers to track on-site searches, product pages views and online conversion points. The conversion rates are overall, including mobile and desktop, but excluding apps.

Jumpshot analyzed the following top online retailers: Amazon.com (No. 1 the Internet Retailer 2018 Top 500), Apple (No. 2), Best Buy  (No. 8), Kohl’s (No. 18), Macy’s (No. 6), Nordstrom (No. 16), Etsy (No. 19), Target (No. 17), Walmart (No. 3), and eBay. (No. 4 in the Internet Retailer 2018 Online Marketplaces),

Most of these merchants had higher Cyber Monday conversion rates compared with Black Friday. This is a change from 2017 when many store-based merchants had higher Black Friday conversion rates compared with web-only merchants.

In addition, Best Buy, Target and Walmart generated a higher conversion rate on Thanksgiving Day compared with Black Friday. This could be because all three of these merchants began their Black Friday deals online on Thanksgiving, and shoppers rushed to purchase the deals online.

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Etsy and Target were the only merchants that increased their conversion rates each day over the Cyber 5 compared with last year. Target also generated the largest conversion rate increase over the Cyber 5, with its Sunday, Nov. 25, conversion rate increasing 82.4%, according to Jumpshot data. “This might be a result of recent changes to its delivery program, such as its same-day delivery and its drive-up service,” says Jumpshot senior analyst Shaun Rivera.

Etsy, Target and Walmart also increased their Thanksgiving conversion rate in 2018 compare with Thanksgiving Day 2017, according to Jumpshot.

 

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Although some retailers may have had lower conversion rates over the Cyber 5 compared with last year, there could be a few reasons why, Jumpshot says.

Overall, traffic stemming from mobile devices increased year over year, which drew overall conversion rates down during the Cyber 5 because mobile conversion rates are generally lower than desktop rates, Rivera says.

Plus, a lower conversion rate is not necessarily a bad thing, as it can be skewed if traffic is higher or lower than normal. In addition, conversion rate is only one way to measure growth, as merchants could still increase their sales and their holiday season market share, and have a lower conversion rate.

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Several retailers did not respond to a request for comment.

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