HVAC Contractor Newsletter

Cyber Monday and E-Commerce Trends (1:47)

The results from Cyber Monday and Ecommerce activity from this year are more proof that HVAC companies must start taking advantage of the Internet as a way to grow both revenues and the customer base.

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Hi, Brian Starzec here. I hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving. I think we pretty much all know by now that the day after Thanksgiving is commonly known as Black Friday, but how many are you familiar with Cyber Monday?

This week, let?s take a look a closer look at Cyber Monday and this year's results.

Cyber Monday is the Monday after Thanksgiving and it is the ceremonial kick-off to the holiday online shopping season. Although the revenue generated by traditional brick-and-mortar stores dwarfs the revenue generated online, retail stores were no match with respect to growth.

Looking at the chart below, we see that this year's Black Friday's total retail sales were $10.66 billion, up 0.5 percent from a year earlier according to ShopperTrak. However, online retailers were up 11%, bringing in roughly $595 million according comScore.

Taking a closer look at the online sales, according to Coremetrics, the average online order increased 35% with shoppers spending roughly $170.19 per order compared to $126.04 last year. This is partly due to the fact that customers purchased 5.4 items per order as compared to 4.6 per order last year.

This is indicative of an overall growth trend in online commerce. As you see starting with the fourth quarter in 2008, there has been consistent growth each quarter. Over the same time period growth in traditional retail stores actually decreased.

What does this all mean?

Quite simply, Internet business is growing!

My only question is - are you taking advantage of it?