PHILADELPHIA, Pa. – Monetate, the leader in multi-channel testing and personalization for brands worldwide, announced today that its platform influenced a third of all U.S. ecommerce sales (or one in every three dollars spent online) during Thanksgiving and Black Friday 2015. Data indicates increases in digital browsing and buying, and significant growth in mobile and social commerce.

Holiday Shoppers Stay Online

Last year, online spending reached historic levels as consumers moved online to both browse and buy. The trend continued this year as online sales in the U.S. on Thanksgiving Day saw a 9 percent gain to $1.1 billion in spending, surpassing the billion dollar threshold for the second consecutive year and marking the first day of the 2015 season to reach that level. Black Friday followed with an even stronger spending day with $1.66 billion in desktop online sales, up 10 percent from Black Friday 2014, according to Web analytics firm comScore.

Monetate’s data showed average order values (AOVs) started high and fell over the holiday weekend, from Thanksgiving ($173.78) to Black Friday ($164.22) through Saturday ($147.42) and Sunday ($135.61).

“Online sales on Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday 2015 signaled a very strong start to the holiday buying season. This is encouraging, though not surprising, given the strong performance from ecommerce last year,” said Lucinda Duncalfe, CEO, Monetate. “Rather than brave the lines in-store, consumers are opting to stay with their families during the holidays, buying from the comfort of their couches. And why not? As retailers continue to ease the online shopping experience and extend promotional deals well beyond a few individual shopping days, we expect ecommerce to become the channel of choice for holiday buyers.”

Mobile Browsers Become Mobile Buyers

Much of the ecommerce increase this season was bolstered by a dramatic and unprecedented performance from mobile devices. Overall mobile traffic skyrocketed to 64 percent of all online traffic on Thanksgiving and 61 percent on Black Friday. More importantly this year saw mobile shoppers increasingly using their devices to make purchases rather than just for browsing or price comparisons.

“Though we did see dramatic increases this year in buying on mobile devices, consumers are still saving their larger purchases for desktops. Average purchase size on mobile devices grew quickly this year, up 12 percent to $112. But desktop still reigns at $141 average purchase value, up 5 percent from last year,” said Lucinda Duncalfe, President and CEO, Monetate. “We see consumers making smaller impulse purchases on mobile, but they still prefer the experience and perceived security of the desktop for larger ticket items. The key for retailers this season lies in their ability to use all the data they have available to enrich and personalize the customer experience – regardless of what device they’re on.”