In a surprising last minute jump, online spending leaped past last year’s by almost 98% for the last weekend before Christmas. Some attributed it to the weather, others to last minute guilt spending during a weak economy.
What ever the reason, many online retailers were delighted t see the boost in sales. The highest searched terms the last weekend were naturally gift cards – the gift of choice for many this holiday season. Researchers project one more bump in online spend due to redemptions of those cards during this final week of the year.
Last minute SEO efforts for some companies in November may have helped boost their online presence, say some – although standard practice is to start Christmas SEO in August, several small companies managed to come out of nowhere simply by paying attention to trends.
The new year is expected to still maintain a strong move toward online advertising and social presence for many mainstream companies – they are realizing the power of the internet at last. Some projections already have next year’s Christmas online haul at record proportions.
Tags: Christmas, online spend, projections