Women & Weather Fuelled Online Growth In Holiday Season.

Weather and gender turned out to be the forces behind eCommerce’s record sales of $6.4 billion this holiday season (11/19/01 – 12/25/01), with women and Americans from the colder US states like Alaska shopping online the most. According to BizRate.com these active shoppers helped increase Q4 sales by 35% to $12.4 billion, which made Q4 the strongest quarter of the year in online retail.

Despite the flagging economy, consumers not only shopped more online this year, but also spent more. Average order amounts were up 13% over last season – averaging $126 per order versus $112 last year – as consumers opted to buy big-ticket items. Similarly, consumers spent on average 27% more on shipping charges because retailers were much smarter in structuring free shipping deals this season, most requiring a minimum purchase amount in exchange for the offer.

Chuck Davis, President & CEO of BizRate.com commented, “Most free shipping offers came with a $100 spending hurdle compared to last year when free shipping deals were unadulterated. Consequently, this year, consumers paid a truer cost of $10.13 dollars on average for shipping.”

While the peak online holiday shopping day fell one day earlier (12/17/01) than last year, interestingly, many online shoppers felt more confident about leaving their purchases to the last minute. The last week before Christmas (12/16/01 – 12/22/01) saw a 48% jump, up to $1.4 billion, compared to the same period last year.

Cooler States Lead The Way

Despite the warmer east coast weather at the beginning of the Holiday season, weather does count when it comes to online shopping’s performance. Alaska paved the way with 305 orders per 1,000 people, followed by New Hampshire which saw 296 orders per 1,000 people. Sunny southern states were the biggest overall laggards this year as consumers in those states opted for the outdoor shopping experience.

Most Online Holiday Purchases Made by Women

Online shopping demographics continued to shift this Holiday season, with females dominating online purchases by 56% on average – a drastic shift from 3 years ago when only 39% of orders were placed by women. Women were the majority of early bird shoppers this year, while men logged online later, especially during the last weekend prior to Christmas day when men placed 53% of orders. Orders By Demographic Holiday Season 2001 Holiday Season 2000 Holiday Season 1999 Holiday Season 1998

“The female migration online is having an impact what is selling best and when for eCommerce. For instance, male driven categories such as electronic gadgetry and computer hardware used to be the categories that sold first and best online,” said Chuck Davis, “This year, with the huge female influence online, we saw other categories grow in sales such as Home & Garden and Toys & Video Games.”

Top performing categories for the holiday period were Electronics (up 102%) and Toys & Games (up 69%). Computer Hardware, the second largest category in terms of total sales volume, was up an impressive 53%. Gifts & Flowers, the largest category in terms of sales, reaped over $1.3 billion – up 37% from last year.

E-tailers Didn’t Cut Too Many Corners On Customer Satisfaction
Despite the tougher economic times this year, retailers realized they couldn’t afford to cut corners in terms of customer satisfaction. However, on those occasions when online merchants dropped the ball in customer care, they found it to be a costly mistake. 40% of shoppers who did not intend to purchase again from a merchant cited poor customer support and late delivery as the major reasons for their decision.

On-time delivery, a notorious Achilles Heel for many e-tailers from previous Holiday seasons especially 1999, has remained constant at 87% year over year for 2001, indicating that consumers got what they were promised when they were promised it, and e-tailers have finally figured out their key fulfillment issues. The top performers for on time delivery were: Sporting Goods (91%), Health & Beauty (90%), and Food & Drink (89%), while the bottom performing categories for on-time delivery included Computer Hardware (84%), Electronics (83%), and Computer Software (82%).

“This year’s Holiday season started strong and never weakened,” said Davis. “With e-commerce up 35% in Q4 in a challenging economy, customer satisfaction holding strong, and women embracing online shopping, we can confidently say that online shopping has gone mainstream.”

To view charts CLICK above on ‘More Images’.