Main Course of Mobile Shopping With a Side of Turkey

Thanksgiving weekend has passed, and turkeys weren’t the only things that came in hot. The overconsumption of food and products we may or may not have needed is behind us, and as another frenzy of food and shopping comes to a close, there are some record-breaking trends that made a difference this year. This weekend came in at a whopping $29 billion – 20 percent of the entire holiday revenue, and the line between old and new was drawn, with digital leading the shopping revolution. Here are some highlights:

• Black Friday alone closed with $7.4 billion in online sales, behind only 2018’s cyber Monday, which closed in at $7.9 billion. $2.9 billion of that total came from smartphone purchases alone – an increase of 21 percent, making this black Friday the “biggest year ever for mobile.”
• Cyber Monday closed with $9.4 billion in online sales, with $473 million of that hitting by 9 a.m. $3 billion of that came from smartphone purchases, surpassing last year’s $1.3 billion in smartphone buys. 
• Total online purchases since the beginning of November are now at $72 billion.

But just as what goes up must come down, so too must the shopping high, and unlike the one-too-many slices of pie eaten, purchases can go back. Perhaps shoppers just wanted some retail therapy after a long and awkward night with family. Maybe that air fryer won’t ever see life outside of its box. Whatever the case, roughly 30 percent of all online purchases will be returned – and despite being in functional and cosmetically perfect condition, putting returned items back on store shelves is logistically inefficient (and only 50% can actually be sold at full price). Plus, packing up and storing seasonal items for a year can compromise space in – what’s most likely – an already packed warehouse.

Having a proper secondary market strategy in place can offset significant loss for returns (post holiday and all year round). An automated and scalable B2B marketplace solution like the one B-Stock offers is one way to go. 

For more info on that, we’ve put together a Playbook: How An Online Marketplace Can Solve Your Post Holiday Returns Problem.
Download Playbook