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Mastercard's SpendingPulse is out, showing that online shopping is trending with consumers, who are set to spend more online with their credit and debit cards this season than they have in the past. E-commerce sales started out very strong before Black Friday, growing 18.3% between November 1 and December 19.
Weather, social media and word of mouth helped drive the growth of online shopping, according to the study, which takes a close look at payment trends. "A mix of early deals and cold weather helped drive shoppers online. In addition, we're seeing more consumers finding out about brands and listening to shopping advice from social networks, communities, and friends - making it even easier to buy from any connected device," said Steve Sadove, senior advisor for Mastercard and former CEO and Chairman of Saks Incorporated.
When compared with the other kinds of shopping e-commerce took 13% of the market share in 2018, which set a new record when it comes to online shopping. "Online shopping is experiencing a surge boosted by strong growth in Apparel, Department Store, and Jewelry e-commerce sales," said Sadove.
Apparel showed the highest growth rate, taking 16.5% of the e-commerce market, while Department Stores, Electronics and Jewelry all grew between 7% and 10%.
Black Friday led the growth
All in all, e-commerce has been steadily growing over the years, starting Thanksgiving week and spreading throughout November. And this year that trend continues, with Black Friday's online sales jumping 28.4% year over year.
The study showed that Mother Nature has helped boost online sales on the East Coast this season, and this was especially true on Black Friday. Department stores showed the biggest growth when it came to online sales on Black Friday, with sales hitting 28.5%. And not far behind Apparel came in second, with a 25.1% upswing in growth.
Cyber Monday performs well too
What about Cyber Monday? Here to growth was in the air, with online sales showing growing by 29%.
On Cyber Monday apparel was hot with consumers who did their shopping online, growing by 20%, with Department stores trending with consumers too.
The Mastercard SpendingPulse uses aggregated sales made on the Mastercard network to determine what payment methods are trending with consumers, whether they are using credit cards, debit cards, checks or cash.