CyberMonday held on to its distinction as the busiest and most productive day of the year for online sellers, topping sales recorded last Friday by more than 25%, according IBM Commerce’s Watson Trend Report. Yesterday’s sales topped CyberMonday 2014’s by 18%.
Perhaps because it’s the final whack at five days of savings for consumers, conversion rates soared on Monday. The average rate was 5.37% compared to Friday’s 4.20%, and new site visitors converted at 4.39% versus 3.26%. Shopping cart sessions were 12% higher Monday over Friday and abandoned carts were 5% lower.
Monday was a bigger day for desktop shopping. Only 37% of traffic on shopping sites came via smartphone, as opposed to 43% on Friday. Desktops turned in an average 7.5% conversion rate and accounted for 72% of website sales on Monday versus 64% of sales and a 6.4% conversion on Friday.
Paw Patrol, Oculus rift, Nexus 9 tablets, Skullcandy headphones, and Klipsch speakers were among the fastest-moving products, according to Watson. Also trending upward were “natural” running shoes such as Nike Free, Skylanders video games, Star Wars interactive droids, and single-wheeled “hoverboards.”
