• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, December 1, 2014

According to The Custora E-Commerce Pulse, an online dashboard tracking online retailers, online shoppers, and over $40 billion in transaction revenue, the US holiday shopping season is off to a strong start. The first three weeks of the season, from November 1^st to November 20^th, show strong growth in e-commerce orders and revenue, as well as in mobile shopping.

Highlights of the 2014 holiday shopping season so far:

The holidays are off to a strong start with e-commerce orders up 15.4% in the first three weeks of the season over the same period in 2013, and revenue up 15.0%. Average order value (AOV) didn’t change compared to last year, indicating a stable retail environment with no additional promotions compared to last year.

Mobile shopping is now over a fifth of online sales. 23.3% of e-commerce orders were made on mobile phones or tablets in the first three weeks of the 2014 holiday shopping season, up from 17.1% in the same period last year.

Apple devices dominate, but Android is stealing share, as 77.6% of e-commerce orders made on mobile devices (phones and tablets) happen on iPhones and iPads. Android devices (phones and tablets) only account for 22% during the first three weeks of November, but that is up from 16.4% in 2013.

Google search, both free and paid, drove over 40% of e-commerce orders. Free search (organic / SEO) drove 22.4%, and paid search (SEM / CPC) drove 18.6%. Email marketing is also an important marketing channel this holiday season, driving 16.8% of orders in the first three weeks of the season. Social media networks (including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest) are not yet significant drivers of online shopping, driving only 1.5% of online orders in the first two weeks of the season.

 To view Custora.com, please visit here.