FROM THE NETWORK
NOTES FROM THE NETWORK
Black Friday 2017 Shows Year-Over-Year Gains in Online and Mobile Traffic
At Retailer Web Services( RWS), data drives everything we do. It informs the software we develop and the technological advancements we launch. We pride ourselves on conducting national market research on the shopping patterns, trends and behaviors of the online consumer as well as capturing real-time analytics on the performance of the 2,000 retailer websites on our network. In 2015, we began tracking comprehensive November holiday shopping stats on the RWS network. Here, we share the findings— and good tidings— from November 2017 to help retailers plan for the 2018 holiday season:
“... NOVEMBER 2017 POSTED MILLIONS IN PROFITS...”
“... 6.4 MILLION VISITS FROM OVER 5.4 MILLION UNIQUE VISITORS...”
“... 57 PERCENT FROM SMARTPHONES...”
Overall, national retailers were not the only ones experiencing strong online demand last holiday season. For independent retailers of durable home goods, November 2017 posted millions in profits from sales and leads directly attributable to their websites.
Nearly 8,000 automated omni-channel promotions ran on the RWS network. Data provided from Google Analytics for a cross section of 1,585 sites showed 6.4 million visits from over 5.4 million unique visitors to these sites during November.
For the third consecutive year, Thanksgiving Day had the highest percentage of site traffic from mobile phones— 57 percent from smartphones, compared to this year’ s daily average of 35 percent.
“... THE DAY OF THE YEAR WITH THE MOST WEB TRAFFIC...”
Also for the third year in a row, Black Friday remained the day of the year with the most web traffic, followed by Cyber Monday and the weekend between the two shopping holidays. Black Friday also earned the highest number of online quotes and orders, followed by Cyber Monday.
“...$ 79.6 MILLION OF BUSINESS WAS FACILITATED ON THE RWS NETWORK...”
More traffic resulted in more sales for independent retailers using web solutions from RWS. An estimated $ 79.6 million of business was facilitated on the RWS network. This figure is based on the estimated value of online quotes and orders received in November.
“... THE VALUE OF DIGITAL LEADS AND CONVERSIONS...”
To quantify the value of digital leads and conversions, RWS polled retailers and found an average profit per sale to be $ 170, with the following average close rates from these lead sources:
• 87.2 percent for online orders
• 50 percent for online quote requests
• 75.3 percent for GPS navigations to the store from mobile, and
• 64.7 percent calls to the store from the site on mobile.
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“... ESTIMATED PROFITS OF MORE THAN $ 7.4 MILLION...”
Applying these aggregated averages to the stats recorded across all sites powered by RWS shows estimated profits of more than $ 7.4 million, which are directly attributable to their WebFronts ® web presence.
THE RWS TAKEAWAY:
These year-over-year results have continued to climb, reinforcing the need for independent retailers’ sites to delight their local mobile shoppers and convert them into happy customers. There are significant returns earned by those that do!