Online Sales Predicted to Grow by Over 14 Percent

IBM predicts online sales will grow by more than 14.5 percent over 2014. Led by mobile shopping, consumers indicate the Apple Watch, Samsung, Sony and LG TVs, Microsoft Surface Pro 4 and more are at the top of their shopping lists, according to the IBM Watson Trend App.

Traffic from Mobile Devices exceeds the 54 percent mark for early Black Friday deals with Average Order Value exceeding USD 141 in the early morning hours of Black Friday . Smartphones are the more popular devices with iOS being the preferred operating system among the online shoppers, according to IBM Live Benchmark data. Mobile traffic in 2014 accounted for 52 percent of all online traffic, an increase of 22.4 percent year-over-year, and mobile sales were 32.3 percent of all online sales, an increase of 25.4 percent, according to the IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark report. Apple iOS is leading the way in mobile shopping this holiday season, outpacing Android in online sales.

According to Internet Retailer, Online sales were up 24 percent on Thanksgiving morning, reaching the half-billion-dollar mark, as shoppers jumped on early holiday deals, even though the discounts weren’t as steep as last year’s, according to data from Adobe Digital Index.

Shoppers on smartphones and tablets drove 52 percent of the traffic, with the smartphone share of mobile purchases growing 30 percentage, to 17 percent this Thanksgiving from 13 percent during the same period in 2014, according to the Adobe Inc. data that tracks visits to more than 4,500 U.S. retail websites. The share of sales coming from shoppers using tablets stood at 14%, down from 16% in 2014, the Adobe data shows.

Between midnight and 10 a.m. Central Time, U.S. consumers purchased USD 500 million online, or USD 100 million more than during the same period last year, Adobe says.

Scot Wingo, executive chairman of ChannelAdvisor, an e-commerce services provider that helps retailers sell through online marketplaces. “To put this in perspective, last year we saw 19% growth for mid-day Thanksgiving and we ended Thanksgiving up 20%.”

The e-commerce trend is staying strong after IBM reported online sales up 35 percent Wednesday over the same day last year and up 21 percent Tuesday over the prior year

According to IBM Watson, Live Predictions, the top-selling products for Black Friday are likely to be:

Beats by Dre: Beats headphones, earbuds, and speakers have been wildly popular since first appearing in 2008. Watson finds growing chatter around the Beats Solo2 Wired On-Ear headphones as well as the release of Dr. Dre’s unheard tracks on Apple’s Beats 1 streaming music channel. Additional trending headphones include Sennheiser, Bose, Skullcandy and Sure.
Jordan Shoes: Known best for its original Air Jordan line of basketball sneakers, Jordan Brand has released a new line of performance running shoes. Watson finds that the line is being lauded for both their aesthetics and foot support and is gaining popularity among consumers who sported the original sneakers in the 1990s.
Nintendo Super Smash Bros: Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros for Wii U is generating significant buzz and Watson knows why. While the game features popular Nintendo characters such as Mario, Donkey Kong and Pokémon, it’s the “unprecedented” addition of Final Fantasy’s Cloud Strife that has gamers buzzing with excitement.
MeccaNoid Personal Robots: Personal robots including those from Star Wars are popular this year but many parents are also looking to more “edutainment” focused gifts. Watson reports that many parents are looking at MeccaNoid, which teaches kids from ages 8 to 12 how to create, learn and code so they can ultimately build their own robot.

IBM has also identified the fastest trending products. These are based on the impact (size of the conversation) and the momentum (the rate of growth of the conversation):