Study shows peak online shopping time difference

Peak online shopping times between Black Friday and Cyber Monday varied considerably, according to a study released Thursday by SLI Systems.

The study by SLI, a worldwide e-commerce acceleration provider for mid- to large-size Internet retailers, found Cyber Monday  saw nearly 30 percent more online shopping activity than any other shopping day during the 2014 Thanksgiving-to-Cyber Monday holiday timeframe.

Data outlining e-commerce activity across online retailers in the U.S. during the five-day period reveals that Cyber Monday at 10:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (9 p.m. Central) was the peak online shopping hour. Nearly 40 percent of the online shopping was conducted on mobile devices.

The peak online shopping time on Black Friday was 11 a.m. Eastern and 10 a.m. Central, the study showed.

SLI studied e-commerce site activity across 500 retailer websites based in the U.S., analyzing a total of 45 million queries taking place during Thanksgiving week. The study spanned all e-commerce segments from apparel to electronics and included 100 of the Internet Retailer Top 1,000 retailers. Site queries include activities such navigation page views, completed shopping carts, product page views, and product recommendation displays.

"While online shopping continues to spike on the Monday after Thanksgiving, all days of the four-day weekend including Thanksgiving Day show strong online shopping," said Tim Callan, CMO, SLI Systems. "Shopping behavior showed a clearly distinct pattern between days traditionally filled with other commitments (Thanksgiving and Monday) and days on which people were at their leisure. The first set of days shows strong evening spikes, unlike the weekend days and also pre-Thanksgiving Day shopping behavior."

Key findings from the study:

• 37 percent of online shopping during the 2014 five-day period was conducted on mobile devices
• Peak online shopping hours for the five-day period:
  • Cyber Monday at 10:00 p.m. EST
  • Black Friday at 11:00 a.m. EST
  • Thanksgiving Day at 10:00 p.m. EST
  • Saturday at noon and 9:00 p.m. EST
  • Sunday at 8:00 p.m
• In 2014, Cyber Monday saw nearly 30 percent more online shopping than Black Friday – an uptick from 2013 when the difference between the two key days was 27 percent
• Online shopping on Thanksgiving Day 2014 was 37 percent lower than on Black Friday
• Sunday (Nov 30, 2014) activity was only 9 percent lower than that of Black Friday

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