Holiday sales off to blistering start as shoppers gravitate to online, mobile

By Liz Moyer

Investing.com -- Holiday sales season got off to a blistering start for many retailers, and data this week show shoppers are gravitating to online marketplaces and mobile options.

Austin, Tex.-based Bigcommerce Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:BIGC) said sales on mobile devices made up 38% of total orders for its online merchants. What were shoppers buying? The largest year-over-year growth category was luggage, up 74%, followed by fashion, up 66%, and travel, up 64%.

BigCommerce says it works with tens of thousands of companies to create online stores, including Ben&Jerry’s, S.C. Johnson and Vodafone (NASDAQ:VOD).

Its shares rose 1.8% on Friday but are up nearly 22% since last week after a big boost from holiday shopping. For the year, the shares are down 72%.

Total orders were up 32% over Cyber week, BigCommerce said. Gross merchandise value sold on Cyber Monday was up 32% from the same day last year, while GMV sales on the Saturday and Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend were up 36% and 35%, respectively.

Thanksgiving day GMV was up 23%, it said. 

Shoppers embraced flexible payment options such as buy now, pay later services, with usage rising 25% from last year, it added.

The company also said in a blog post on its website that Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) was the source of the highest GMV and the most orders for BigCommerce merchants, followed by eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY) and Walmart Inc (NYSE:WMT). And sales on social media platforms such as TikTok, Instagram and Facebook (NASDAQ:META) were highest on Black Friday.