Shoppers Turn To Smartphones, Tablets On Cyber Monday
BOSTON (CBS) - At women's clothing company J.Jill's Quincy headquarters, the Cyber Monday numbers looked good early on. "So far, we're roughly seeing a traffic increase of around 13 percent," said Senior Vice President of Direct, Charles White.
On a normal day, online sales at J.Jill, equal 30 percent. On Cyber Monday, it's 75 percent. And the planning for this popular shopping event began months before. "Literally 10 to 11 months in advance," White said. The company upgraded its website to handle increased traffic, with more of it than ever, coming from smartphones and tablet computers. "We've seen roughly a 70 percent increase in mobile traffic to our site and that translates to a little over 20 percent of our e-commerce sales coming through mobile," he added.
The increased influence of mobile devices is similar nationwide. Jay Henderson is with IBM Smarter Commerce, tracking shopping trends. "Mobile has absolutely reached the tipping point where retailers have to pay attention to it and it's an important part of the online shopping mix," Henderson said. The numbers show more people using smartphones to browse and tablets to buy. Tablets are linked to more than 10 percent of all online sales this cyber Monday. Phones accounted for 6.3 percent, according to IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark.
"Online shopping in general is up about 20 percent year over year. That's Thanksgiving Day, Black Friday and Cyber Monday," said Henderson. But do all of those promotions actually translate into good deals? They can if you do your homework. One of the most popular incentives is free shipping. "The big question isn't whether or not you're going to get free shipping, it's whether or not there is going to be a minimum you're going to spend in order to get that," he explained.
Back at J.Jill, there's no free shipping minimum and 30 percent off the entire Cyber Monday order. If early projections are any indication, that offer is paying off. "I would not be surprised if 10 years from now we're talking about cyber week or cyber weeks," Charles White said.
Henderson with IBM says Tuesday is also good for online deals, along with every Monday through December. After that, look out for free shipping Friday, the last day to make sure you get your order in for delivery by Christmas.
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