Free shipping spurs e-commerce momentum
ComScore's data--along with other information from IBM's CoreMetrics and from ShopperTrak--will likely contribute to the clicks-killing-bricks argument for retail.
E-commerce spending has held its Cyber Monday momentum and remains strong courtesy of free shipping deals, according to ComScore.
The research firm noted the following:
- E-commerce sales are up 15 percent for the week ending Dec. 2;
- The last week featured three $1 billion plus days;
- 64 percent of transactions included free shipping.
Coming up: Great Debate: Is e-commerce killing brick and mortar?
ComScore provided the following charts:
A few observations to ponder:
- ComScore’s data—along with other information from IBM’s CoreMetrics and ShopperTrak—will likely contribute to the clicks-killing-bricks argument for retail. We have a Great Debate on the topic. If anything, I see e-commerce, social, physical stores, and mobile all blending together. The retail experience won’t be zero sum.
- The free-shipping deals mean retailers need to get their logistics down so they can offset the margin hit. The advantage here goes to early e-commerce players such as Amazon.
- Free shipping appears to be the price of admission to even play in the e-tail space.
This story originally appeared on ZDNet's Between the Lines under the headline "E-commerce spending rolls on; Free shipping critical."
