As computers, mobile devices, and search continue to play an ever increasingly role in the lives of consumers, this holiday season has been projected to lead with the highest grossing revenues in online shopping ever recorded. This development has been supported by the evolution of the web, which has brought vast amounts of information to the fingertips of users, making it has been easier to connect with brands than ever before. To investigate the vitality of this trend, Chitika Insights conducted a research study comparing year on year growth of online shopping.
To measure the degree of increase in online shopping, the above graph compares the level of growth in online shopping interest between the week before Thanksgiving and Thanksgiving week for 2010 and 2011, looking a sample covering hundreds of millions of impressions. As you can see, whereas shopping only grew 25% between these two weeks in 2010, it grew by a whopping 42% in 2011. This data set highlights the fact that the growth rate of online shopping behavior continues to increase.
E-commerce has clearly solidified its importance to consumers and retailers alike, and m-commerce is also starting to play an increasingly larger role in the equation as well. The success of retailers both on and offline depends entirely on their ability to adapt to the growing volume of traffic and unique needs of online shoppers. By providing consumers with added touch points like websites optimized for mobile phones and the incorporation of QR codes, (which shoppers can scan to get more information on products they are looking at in-store), retailers are likely to enjoy higher profits by ensuring they reach customers on every possible channel of commerce.
