• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, December 4, 2018

Brands that saw a 4% decline in their average order value (AOV) during the Thanksgiving Day weekend -- despite consumers spending more -- are not alone. Consumers tend to spend less per purchases on mobile devices. And with the rise of spend on mobile, the AOV fell. Here are a few other data points to make marketers feel more at ease.

The AOV on mobile during the Thanksgiving Day weekend fell 52% lower than on desktop. Cyber Monday saw 24% lower AOV than Black Friday, indicating that Black Friday is the preferred day for consumers to make big, planned purchases.

Udayan Bose, NetElixir founder, called some of the daypart findings “quite interesting” and pointed to the low percentage of orders in the morning and afternoon on Cyber Monday as being “very counterintuitive.”

Dayparts for search impressions ranked highest at 35.49% from 6 p.m. to midnight, falling to 31.96% from noon to 6 p.m., about 21% from 6 a.m. to noon, and 11.44% from midnight to 6 a.m.

The buying patterns for Black Friday versus Cyber Monday show that Cyber Monday has the most influence for online, with sales sparking a 44% increase compared with 28.6% for Black Friday.

Still, overall, U.S. sales rose during the weekend.

NetElixir broke out each region. The South saw sales rise the most, at 21.34% compared with 2017. The West saw sales rise 16.33% compared with 2017. In the Central part of the U.S. sales rose 15.46%, and Northeast sales rose the least, at 9.53%.

As the overall AOV fell 8.82% year-over-year, the cost per click rose 12.31%, and conversions jumped 15.33%.

Combining desktop and mobile, the AOV on Thanksgiving Day began the long weekend at $115.78 -- rising on Black Friday to $120.17, and falling on Saturday to $80.60. On Sunday, the AOV bottomed out at $75.53 and then jumped to $91.40.

Bose also believes that 76% of online sales have yet to occur this year.