Mother's Day online spending hits $4.4 billion in US
13 May 2005
Mother's Day-related online spending reached $4.4 billion this year between April 25th and May 8th, 24 per cent higher than the same period in 2004.
Ecommerce provider VeriSign said jewellery purchases rose 79 per cent over the Mother's Day period, outstripping more traditional Mother's Day categories, such as flowers and chocolates. Spending in the diamonds subcategory was up 101 per cent, with an increase of 540 per cent in transaction activity and an average purchase price of $517.
The Mountain View-based company based its research on the analysis of online sales volume processed through VeriSign Payment Services, which manages more than 37 per cent of all North American ecommerce and represents in excess of 135,000 online retailers.
Trevor Healy, VeriSign vice president of payment services, said: "Mother's Day has arrived as one of our larger retail holidays. Where once this holiday would have been acknowledged with a phone call and a heartfelt card, we're increasingly seeing people using it as an opportunity to send expensive items, such as a necklace pendant.
"Online retailers increasingly count on VeriSign to reliably process their transactions. As such, we will continue to have unique insight into consumer spending habits for this holiday and other major retail events."
Online spending for the candy category over the Mother's Day period was flat in 2005 compared to the same weeks in 2004. Chocolates accounted for 56 per cent of the category period sales, with overall spending up 35 per cent on 2004. Online spending on flowers for Mother's Day fell 13 per cent in 2005 , while transaction activity remained flat.
Overall transaction activity totalled 54.8 million transactions, representing a 31 per cent increase on 2004 and May 2nd was the peak online shopping day, accounting for 5.43 million transactions and $473 million dollars, VeriSign reports.
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