‘Tis the Season to be Mobile: Criteo Unveils US Holiday Online Shopping Behavior Insights

Data Released by Criteo Highlights Timing is Critical to Capture Holiday Season Sales; Mobile Devices Will Play a Major Role in Consumer Purchase Behavior

New York – Criteo (NASDAQ: CRTO), the performance marketing technology company, today unveiled key data insights highlighting online shopping trends among US consumers during the holiday season. Criteo analyzed US holiday shopping behavior data from 2013 and 2014 in an effort to help marketers better understand how to launch successful digital advertising campaigns during the holiday shopping push this year.

Among the key trends: The majority of purchases are made after Thanksgiving with an 81 percent average increase in sales leading up to December 19. Additionally, the average shopping cart size is the largest on Thanksgiving Day ($147), followed by Christmas Day ($126). The short holiday season – 20 days – in 2014 increases the importance for retailers to influence purchasing decisions early and boost their CPCs.

The data released by Criteo represents the activity of millions of online transactions from close to 500 US retailers over desktop, smartphones and tablets in 2013 and 2014. Additional key takeaways include:

  • In the 20 days that retailers have to perform this holiday season, retailers will see a 30 percent increase in conversion rate and 5 percent increase in average cart size
  • Mobile devices will play a major role in consumer purchase behavior this year with a projected 27 percent of purchases coming from mobile devices and 48 percent of those coming from tablets
  • The highest-performing time for purchases via tablet is 3 – 5 p.m., whereas the highest-performing time for purchases via smartphone is 8 a.m. – 10 a.m. and purchases via desktop is 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.
  • Fashion and luxury verticals have the largest share of mobile purchases during the holiday shopping season followed by toys and gadgets and sporting goods

“With only 20 days between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year, it’s important for brands to understand online shopping behavior and tailor marketing efforts for the holiday season,” said Kathleen Schneider, senior vice president of marketing and communications at Criteo. “Analyzing trends from last year, marketers can make critical adjustments to their strategies to reach consumers when they are most likely to buy, and our data paints an insightful picture to help them.”

About Criteo

Criteo delivers personalized performance marketing at an extensive scale. Measuring return on post-click sales, Criteo makes ROI transparent and easy to measure. Criteo has over 1,000 employees in 21 offices across the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific, serving over 6,000 advertisers worldwide with direct relationships with over 8,000 publishers.

For more information, please visit http://www.criteo.com.