USA TODAY article on "surging" Cyber Monday sales...

[Ed Mack]

Interesting article from the Alistair Barr of the USA Today.  The future of LEGO set procurement is shifting more and more to online sales.  The IPads of the world are making it easier to buy(and sell) LEGO sets.  The article also mentions LEGO sets as "hot toys" and mentions eBay as the place to buy sets that cannot be found at primary retailers.  Overall, a positive for LEGO investing in my opinion...

 

Cyber Monday sales surge to new record

Alistair Barr, USA TODAY  2:09 p.m. EST December 3, 2013

Growth online is contrast to sluggish holiday sales in physical stores as shoppers are lured by convenience of the web

(Photo: Scott Olson, Getty Images)

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SAN FRANCISCO -- Cyber Monday sales surged to a new record as more holiday shoppers skipped physical stores for the convenience and deals offered by Amazon.com, eBay.com, Groupon and other websites.

"Things are off to a really good start," said Scot Wingo, CEO of ChannelAdvisor, which helps merchants sell more through online marketplaces like Amazon and eBay and other web channels including Google. "Cyber Monday numbers were really impressive."

 

Cyber Monday sales rose 16% to a record $2.29 billion, according to Adobe Systems, which tracks activity on more than 1,000 U.S. retail websites. IBM's Digital Analytics Benchmark, which tracks transactions from about 800 retail sites, put the sales increase at almost 21% compared to a year earlier.

 

Cyber Monday is the first full work day after Thanksgiving when employees get back to their desks and use their office computers to buy gifts. But with the recent boom in mobile devices like smartphones and tablets, online shopping has expanded beyond this traditional activity.

 

This year's Cyber Monday capped the highest five-day online sales period on record, according to IBM. From Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday online sales climbed 16.5% percent over the same period in 2012. Mobile devices accounted for more than 17% of Cyber Monday sales, up 55% from last year.

 

"Broader e-commerce data points from the past few days have been coming in ahead of initial expectations," Eric Sheridan, an analyst at UBS, wrote in a note to investors Tuesday.

 

Growth rates of 15% to 20% are higher than forecasts before the holiday shopping period which projected growth in the low teens, he noted.

 

The growth is a stark contrast to sluggish overall retail sales this holiday. The National Retail Federation reported that spending over the Thanksgiving weekend dropped 2.7% compared to a year ago. On the crucial Black Friday shopping day, online sales accounted for 44% of the total, up from 41% last year, the NRF noted.

 

Shoppers are shifting more of their holiday purchasing online for several reasons, according to UBS's Sheridan. E-commerce websites are more convenient than physical stores, more deals and promotions are on the web now, more people have mobile devices which makes it easier to shop online and hot holiday items that sell out quickly are often still available on the Internet, the analyst explained.

 

Amazon, the world's largest Internet retailer, was among the strongest on Cyber Monday and through the five-day period that started with Thanksgiving.

 

ChannelAdvisor clients saw Amazon sales jump 46% on Cyber Monday and 35% through the "Cyber Five" period from Thanksgiving through Monday.

 

Amazon included items from third-party merchants on its deal pages for the first time this holiday season, which likely boosted sales. The company also spread out its deals throughout Cyber Monday and across the early holiday shopping period as a whole, rather than launching promotions all at once, which kept consumers coming back to its website, Wingo explained.

 

ChannelAdvisor clients saw sales on eBay.com climb 30% on Cyber Monday and 32% during the "Cyber Five" period. While that was below Amazon's growth rate, expectations were a lot lower for eBay heading into the holiday period.

 

EBay benefited as video game consoles from Microsoft and Sony and hot toys including Lego, Skylanders and Monster High dolls sold out quickly, forcing shoppers to search for re-sellers offering them on eBay.com.

EBay shares rose 0.8% to $51.78 in afternoon trading Tuesday, while Amazon fell 2.2% to $383.52.

 

Groupon shares jumped 3.5% to $9.06 after the online deals provider said Black Friday and Cyber Monday were the two largest days in North America in the company's history. For the four-day extended Thanksgiving weekend, billings were up almost 30% compared to the same period last year, the company added.

 

"Groupon is benefiting from stronger consumer demand and rising mobile purchase activity," Jordan Rohan, an analyst at Stifel Nicolaus, wrote in a note to clients. "This data point should serve as a short-term catalyst to lift shares that have been lagging the broader market rally."

 

[lowillsw]

Here's the press release from ShopperTrak for B&M. Put 2 and 2 together, this season is pretty bad when you account for population growth and inflation. http://www.shoppertrak.com/news-resources/press-releases/2013-12/retail-sales-up-store-shopper-traffic-down-during-black-weekend-says-shoppertrak?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_content=2928162

[MartinP]

Thanks for sharing. Great article. I missed a lot of the good deals yesterday, but I will not regret it.

[Ed Mack]

Here's the press release from ShopperTrak for B&M. Put 2 and 2 together, this season is pretty bad when you account for population growth and inflation. http://www.shoppertrak.com/news-resources/press-releases/2013-12/retail-sales-up-store-shopper-traffic-down-during-black-weekend-says-shoppertrak?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_content=2928162

Well, this just confirms what many around here were discussing days before Black Friday.  Basically, sales are randomly spread around for more than two months now.  You have to pay attention everyday, because you never know what will be discounted.  Black Friday is nothing special anymore...but Cyber Monday obviously has taken its place as the day to shop..  

 

I'm curious as to why Amazon's stock dropped after a banner weekend.  Maybe they did meet expectations.  Maybe they will have to discount more.  LOL

[tonysbricks]

I think it fell due to how they intend to use those sales and how they were consumed. I assume deep discounts are lost leaders and they hope that while you are "in the store" buying your $1/gallon milk you also pick up a block of cheese and some overpriced bread. But resellers have laser focus and scooped up max quantities of the deals, leaving stores with no lost leaders to pull in the normal grazing traffic and not gaining extra dollars from the losses.

[Ed Mack]

I think it fell due to how they intend to use those sales and how they were consumed. I assume deep discounts are lost leaders and they hope that while you are "in the store" buying your $1/gallon milk you also pick up a block of cheese and some overpriced bread. But resellers have laser focus and scooped up max quantities of the deals, leaving stores with no lost leaders to pull in the normal grazing traffic and not gaining extra dollars from the losses.

Good point.  Live by the sword...Die by the sword as they say.  Amazon takes full advantage of internet tricks and customer habits, yet with more and more information floating around(like this site for example), people can focus on one item and move on.  

[comicblast]

You have to pay attention everyday, because you never know what will be discounted.

I don't think I can make it more than 2 weeks, let alone 52! On a serious note, this is a pleasant plus for investors/hoarders with deep pockets, but forces "smaller pocketed" investors to be slightly more picky, to get the lowest price.

I was just reading an article on this in the physical newspaper (call me an old-timer if you must!), and it basically said that Cyber Monday this year surpassed last year's sales of about $20 million by about noon. 

[TheOrcKing]

Intriguing article, Ed. Well, if things are shifting for most in the ways of buying online, perhaps that will leave more instore deals for a yutz like me! I honestly wonder how much any of my local retailers out here were even effected by this last Black Friday? They looked pretty much the same as the week before especially Walmart with a full aisle of clearance toys and everything. Maybe they were just better prepared all around; I don't know.

[binici]

I welcome the early sales of "Black Friday". Seems like BF will be a thing of the past and the sales will more or less be spread across the days or weeks...

America can't think that trampling over each other over a dollar discount is great, when I can find the same deal at my computer desk with a glass of beer while I shop comfy!

[MillerTime]

I'm curious as to why Amazon's stock dropped after a banner weekend.  Maybe they did meet expectations.  Maybe they will have to discount more.  LOL

 

The share price has skyrocketed. On October 23rd it was $326 per share. It reached just shy of $400 per share before settling down to the mid 380's where it is now. Since July the share price has shot up 50%. I don't think the fact that it went down $10 or so means that it didn't meet black friday expectations - just that the market is correcting from the large jump it made just before Thanksgiving.