Amazon alone responsible for 30% of US online spending over Cyber Weekend

Amazon.com alone accounted for 30.9 per cent of all US online spending, according to new data from Slice Intelligence, over a record Cyber Weekend.

The online retailer dominated the biggest days of the year in e-commerce, even as its top brick-and- mortar rivals made huge improvements in their in e-commerce efforts and competitors adopted highly aggressive pricing strategies.

In the course of the holiday weekend and the following Monday, online sales exceeded $12 billion according to Adobe Digital Insights. Also a National Retail Federation survey found that 108.5 million US citizens shopped online last weekend (not including Cyber Monday), as against 99 million in stores.

However, the data showed that other retailers were starting to make a dent and Amazon's share of the total pie was down ever slightly from last year. 

The biggest winners were Best Buy whose share rose 1.3 percentage points to 7.4 per cent of all online spending, Apple (up 0.6 of a point to 1.5 per cent), and Kohl's (0.4 of a percentage point to 2.7 per cent).

Meanwhile, Ugam, a global leader in managed analytics, yesterday  released its study of the peak shopping period from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday. 

Key highlights from the study include:

Consumer electronics

• Amazon had the highest availability of the top 100 trending electronics, carrying more than 95 per cent of the sample during the Thanksgiving to  Cyber Monday period. Target.com had the lowest availability, carrying less than 65 per cent of the same sample set. Among the trending electronics in the sample were Samsung 4K TVs, Apple iPads and iPhones, Amazon's E-readers and tablets, and Fitbit activity trackers.
• Amazon was also the lowest-price leader, offering the lowest or same as lowest prices on more than 63 percent of the sample electronics on Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday. BestBuy.com was the least price competitive during the analysis period, offering the lowest or same as lowest prices on less than 25 percent of the same sample set.
• Jet had the highest number of products that were out-of-stock during the Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday period. Out of the sample products it carried, 20 percent went out-of-stock on Thanksgiving, 19 percent on Black Friday, and 32 percent on Cyber Monday.
• Average prices for sample electronics that were available across all the five retailers were the lowest on Thanksgiving Day (24 November).