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6 Holiday Shopping Stats Every Small Business Should Know

holiday shopping trends for small businesses; window shopping

Another holiday shopping season is officially upon us. Now that the dust has officially settled from Black Friday and Cyber Monday, it’s time to take a closer look at some really interesting statistics and trends and what they might mean to small business owners now and for the coming year.

Mobile shopping is bigger than ever

The biggest takeaway is the continued growth of mobile shopping. According to cloud-based analytics released earlier this week by IBM, 1) mobile traffic grew to nearly 32% of all Cyber Monday online traffic—a whopping 45% increase over 2012. It’s a number that’s only going to increase over time. That means you’ve got to be thinking about that’s going to mean for your business and your customers and develop your strategy accordingly.

Browsing versus buying

2) Smartphones drove 19.7% of all online traffic on Cyber Monday compared to tablets at 11.5%. However 3) tablets were still the preferred device of choice when it came to making a purchase, driving nearly 12% of all online sales (more than double that of smartphones). On average, 4) tablet users also spent more per order than smartphone users ($126.30 versus $106.49). When I hear people talk about mobile marketing, they’re almost always referring to smartphones. But the survey results also underscore the importance of thinking about tablet users and how they engage with your website during the sales process.

Facebook versus Pinterest

One statistic that might come as a bit of a surprise for some small business owners is how Facebook faired when compared to Pinterest in terms of average spend and percentage of referrals that converted to actual sales. 5) Facebook actually came out on top on both fronts with 6% more spend and 38% higher sales conversion. Remember to frequently analyze the effectiveness of your social media marketing so you understand which platforms are helping you generate new business.

Email marketing is making a comeback

With the continued popularity of social media marketing, many businesses have gotten away from email marketing. However, it can still be an incredibly effective way of reaching new and existing customers—especially around the holidays. According to a survey from the National Retail Federation, 6) 36.8% of shoppers over the Black Friday/Cyber Monday holiday weekend kept track of emails from retailers for information on holiday bargains compared to only 16.4% who reviewed retail companies’ Facebook accounts for information.

Data from both studies make one message loud and clear—more and more shoppers are going mobile and that means small business owners are going to need to have mobile-optimized websites.

View complete holiday shopping findings from IBM and the National Retail Federation.

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[Image: Flickr user Baker County Tourism]


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