E-commerce provider and online marketer Shopatron says its U.S. online retail clients saw a 16.5% overall increase in holiday sales volume compared with last year, including a 43% sales increase on Thanksgiving Day

Cindy Allen

SAN LUIS OBISPO, California , December 29, 2011 (Shopatron) – Shopatron client brands will have many reasons to raise their glasses this New Year’s Eve, including celebrating consistently strong online sales growth for 2011. After seeing year-over-year same-store sales increases ranging from 29% to 36% every quarter, they closed the year with a 16.5% increase in online sales volume for the holiday shopping season.

While Shopatron’s holiday sales were in line with comScore, who reported a 15% increase in sales for the November 1 to December 18 shopping period, the distribution of this year’s holiday sales proved interesting. November saw an overall increase of 25.5% in same-store sales for Shopatron clients over 2010. This included a record-breaking sales increase of 43% on Thanksgiving Day, driven by a combination of proactive online marketing, more aggressive promotions (including free shipping) and big increases in mobile visits. The shopping frenzy then slowed down in December, with a more modest increase in same-store sales of 4.5% for the first 25 days of the month compared to the same period in 2010.

“This holiday season felt more healthy,” noted Mark Grondin, Shopatron SVP of Marketing. “We did not see the kind of intense discounting that we saw last year when retailers were still trying to reduce inventory. As a result, we believe deeper analysis will show higher sales profits for the season, despite the smaller increase in December sales compared to last year.”

Another notable aspect of 2011 online sales is the mobile revolution. Shopatron had the foresight to optimize all of their brand partner websites for mobile in the middle of 2010, and the effort paid off significantly in 2011. Mobile traffic to Shopatron brand websites increased from 6.5% of visits to 12.2% over the course of 2011. And on the Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping days, mobile accounted for 14.5% of visits and 8.4% of revenue. Shopatron expects mobile traffic to account for close to 20% of visits by the end of 2012.

“Mobile stepped up this year,” added Grondin. “It now clearly affects purchases both online and in stores. Those without a solid mobile strategy should sit down and make one immediately.”

For more information about Shopatron, visit ecommerce.shopatron.com or call 866-625-5050.

About Shopatron

Founded in 2001, Shopatron is the only eCommerce solution in the world that can drive more online sales while, at the same time, increasing a company’s sales through the retail channel. Working with over 1,000 brands and 18,000 retail partners across more than 35 industries, Shopatron offers an innovative and flexible approach to eCommerce that matches the unique needs of branded manufacturers and multi-channel retailers.

With Shopatron's eCommerce solution for brands, Coex Freedom, manufacturers sell on their website and send orders to their retail partners for fulfillment. This solution eliminates channel conflict, builds retailer relationships, grows distribution and increases overall sales for the brand. Shopatron’s solution for multi-channel retailers, Coex Private, allows retailers to fulfill orders from all inventory centers, including both retail stores and distribution centers. Shopatron's distributed order management model also enables in-store pickup to drive foot traffic into brick-and-mortar locations for additional services and add-on sales.

Shopatron clients include top brands such as Louisville Slugger, Suzuki, Polaroid, Mizuno, Ducati, JL Audio, American Tire Distributors and Sport Chalet. The company is headquartered in San Luis Obispo, Calif.


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