Digital Commerce Predicted to Increase 14%

(IDEX Online News) – The Thanksgiving weekend shopping frenzy is still ongoing, but comScore is predicting a 14-percent gain for the November-December shopping period online.

The global media measurement and analytics company is estimating that total online spending will reach $70.1 billion. Spending using desktop computers is expected to reach $58.3 billion, up 9 percent year-over-year. Mobile commerce is predicted to account for $11.7 billion of retail spending, representing 17 percent of total digital commerce and growing at a rate of 47 percent compared to last season.

In total, digital commerce is expected to account for about 15 percent of consumers’ discretionary spending.

“The 2015 online holiday shopping season is expected to surpass $70 billion in spending, representing a year-over-year growth rate of 14 percent across desktop, smartphones and tablets, and once again far outpacing the growth of brick-and-mortar retail during the most important stretch of the year for retailers,” said Gian Fulgoni, executive chairman Emeritus of comScore.

“Although we anticipate a marginal slowdown in the digital commerce growth rate from last year’s 15-percent level, the overall economic outlook is positive, which bodes well for consumers and  retailers. Importantly, there’s one additional shopping day between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year, which when coupled with low gas prices means that consumers will have more cash on hand to take advantage of the slightly longer holiday season,” he said.

Fulgoni added that comScore expects “Cyber Monday” to surpass $3 billion in online sales and become the heaviest online spending day in history for the sixth straight year. The company estimates that roughly half a billion in sales will be generated via mobile devices.