It’s been a big few days for online shopping. And two of the most popular ecommerce platform providers for smaller merchants provided a glimpse into just how big online holiday sales were for their clients Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday.
Platform provider BigCommerce says sales for the merchants using its platform increased 74% during the five-day period. On Sunday, online sales for its merchants grew 86% year over year, the largest growth day of the stretch. Thanksgiving Day came in second with 84% year-over-year growth.
“This year, brands and retailers needed to grow spectacularly online to make up for unprecedented challenges offline,” says BigCommece CEO Brent Bellm. He added that the growth reflects the “ever-expanding willingness of consumers” to shift their spending online.
Additionally, the average order value for BigCommerce merchants grew 17% year over year during Cyber 5, led by a $164 average order value on Cyber Monday. Desktop sales accounted for approximately 53% of total platform sales and desktop sales grew 78%. Smartphone sales grew more than 77%.
BigCommerce ranks No. 6 among ecommerce platform providers to the Digital Commerce 360 Top 1000 with 18 Top 1000 retailers using its ecommerce platform. Its Top 1000 clients include Scullcandy Inc. (No. 645) and Rock Bottom Golf (No. 556).
BigCommerce also reports:
- Consumers made the most purchases on Black Friday.
- The number of orders placed during the Cyber 5 increased by approximately 48% year over year.
- Sporting goods, furniture and apparel categories experienced the biggest year-over-year sales gains over the five-day period.
- The United States, United Kingdom and Australia were the top countries in terms of sales during the period, with Texas, California and Florida driving the highest GMV in the US.
The BigCommerce Cyber Week data is based on a comparison of total platform sales that occurred between Nov. 28-Dec. 2, 2019 and Nov. 26-30, 2020.
Meanwhile, BigCommerce competitor Shopify says that its more than 1 million mainly small to midsized merchant clients across 175 countries surpassed $5.1 billion in sales from Black Friday through Cyber Monday, up 76% year over year. Additionally, 44 million consumers made a purchase from Shopify merchants during the period, up 50% year over year. And sales made using Shop Pay, Shopify’s payment app, grew 129% year over year. The peak sales hour occurred at 12 p.m. Eastern on Black Friday, when consumers bought more than $102 million worth of goods and services. The average order value over the five days was $89.20 and the average time from visiting a site to checkout was 26 minutes, down from 27 minutes last year. Additionally, 14% percent of orders were cross-border or from merchants outside a consumer’s home country, Shopify says.
“This has been a transformative year for commerce globally,” says Harley Finkelstein, Shopify president. “The record sales we saw on Shopify over Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend demonstrate the power of the independent and direct-to-consumer businesses on our platform. With the center of gravity in commerce shifting from in-store to online, the pandemic has accelerated a change we have long anticipated.”
Shopify also says the holiday sales surge started earlier than usual for its clients, with daily total sales starting to increase 19 days before Cyber Monday, nearly two weeks earlier than previous years. In the week leading up to Cyber Monday, from Nov. 23 through Nov. 30, sales increased by 84% compared with the same period in 2019—a higher year-over-year growth rate than Cyber 5.
Consumers in Japan spent the most on average per order ($106.40 USD). Australia followed with $105.50 USD AOV. U.S. shoppers’ AOV was $92.80 USD and Canada’s was $103.00 USD.
New York, Los Angeles and London raked in the most sales, while the United States, United Kingdom and Canada were among the top countries in terms of sales worldwide. Japan experienced triple-digit growth in sales via the platform over 2019 with 347% growth. Italy grew 211%, Germany 189%, and the UK climbed 122%.
Mobile sales stayed relatively flat this Black Friday through Cyber Monday compared with last year, with 67% of sales made on mobile devices versus 33% on desktop, compared with 68% of sales made on mobile devices versus 32% on desktop in 2019.
Apparel and accessories sales ranked No. 1 in terms of merchandise categories, followed by health and beauty and home and garden.
In the United States specifically, Shopify reports for the five-day period:
- Average order value was $93.
- The peak sales hour during the period was 12 p.m. Eastern on Black Friday. In New York, the top-selling hour was 10 a.m. Eastern on Black Friday, and in California, it was 10 a.m. Pacific on Black Friday.
- The cities that generated the most sales were New York, followed by Los Angeles and Vernon, California.
Shopify ranks No. 4 among ecommerce platform providers to the Digital Commerce 360 Top 1000 with 38 Top 1000 retailers using its ecommerce platform. Its Top 1000 clients include Allbirds (No. 337) and Brooklinen (No. 380).