Enterprise News Spotlight: Cyber Monday and Black Friday Online Traffic by the Numbers
The big story behind this year’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales events was not the copious amount of product moving off the shelves, but the data tracking online activity around the Thanksgiving holiday. Verizon Enterprise Solutions used its Retail Index to track average and peak online retail traffic from consumers during the holiday season. The resulting data helped analysts and media determine the overall success of this year’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday, which were deemed volatile this year due to numerous factors, including early sales and long tail promotions. Here are some of the top headlines:
Shoppers are Losing Interest in Black Friday and Cyber Monday
Just as early discounting last month siphoned away business from retailers’ Black Friday events, the promise of continued deals on the web this month looks poised to steal the thunder from Cyber Monday, despite the shortened holiday shopping season. – New York Post
Black Friday May be Going Gray as Sales Forecaster (gated)
Black Friday's role as a retail benchmark is changing as the traditional kickoff of holiday shopping creeps from the day after Thanksgiving to the holiday itself and even earlier. – Houston Chronicle
Thanksgiving 2014 - Weekend Wrap Up
There seems to be a consensus among firms reporting stats that retailers and e-tailers started their marketing around the end of October — and did it aggressively. Thanksgiving sales were a little softer than last year as a result of that early marketing. – Point of Sale News
Early Discounts Pull the Power from Black Friday
Online shopping traffic dipped 5 percent on Thanksgiving from a year ago, according to Verizon Enterprise Solutions — a drop that the firm blamed partly on pre-Thanksgiving sales events, and partly on more brick-and-mortar stores being open on Thanksgiving this year. – New York Post
Verizon Launches Retail Index to Track Consumer Online Buying Patterns
During the 2013 shopping season, Verizon said that between the five-day period from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday, there were three notable trends: retailers launched online promotions at least three weeks in advance of the Thanksgiving holiday shopping weekend; online shopping on Thanksgiving Day saw peak volumes after 6 p.m. Eastern time; and some retailers saw peak volumes between midnight and 2 a.m. Eastern time on Cyber Monday. – FierceTelecom
Online Shopping Traffic Dips on Cyber Monday (gated)
Verizon’s enterprise solutions unit reported Tuesday that Cyber Monday online shopping traffic fell 25 points from Sunday and 6 points from a year ago in its retail index. The Verizon Retail Index measures average daily traffic and peak volumes from the Verizon IP network during the holiday season. – Wall Street Journal
The Verizon Retail Index is updated daily. Visit Verizon Enterprise Solutions’ News Center to view the latest online retail traffic data.
