Online sales rose 13 percent year over year on Monday—this year’s Green Monday—making the popular shopping day the third busiest of the holiday season so far.
Researcher comScore reports sales surpassed the $1 billion mark, reaching $1.275 billion. Cyber Monday still holds its place as the top spending day of the holidays. On that day, shoppers shelled out $1.465 billion. Dec. 4 is the second busiest day so far with sales of $1.362 billion.
More shoppers spend more
Green Monday kicked off a “critical week for online holiday shopping,” says Gian Fulgoni, comScore’s chairman.
Green Monday remains a very important day for the season, as consumers have gained confidence with on-time shipment delivery“Green Monday remains a very important day for the season, as consumers have gained confidence with on-time shipment delivery, [but] there is perhaps less urgency than there once was to make those final purchases at least two weeks in advance of Christmas Day.
“What we’ve seen over the past few years is a tendency for heavy spending to continue late into the week of Green Monday and right up until Free Shipping Day, which this year falls on Dec. 17,” he adds.
Slightly more consumers shopped on Green Monday this year compared to last, comScore reports. In fact, this year, an estimated 9.04 million consumers bought something, compared to 8.57 million last year, a 7-percent increase. Buyers spent slightly more, as well—6 percent more, to be exact. Spending per buyer also increased slightly this year, reaching $140.95 per buyer, compared to $132.20 last year.
comScore says shoppers spent about $80.11 per transaction this Green Monday, a 2-percent increase compared to last year’s number of $78.81. The top shopping categories for the day were digital content and subscriptions, toys, video game consoles and accessories, and consumer electronics, according to comScore.
