The Impact of Technology on e-Commerce Over the Past Decade

With the holidays right around the corner, it’s a good time to take a look back at the impact technology has had on consumer spending and shopping habits, especially on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Here’s a review of the top technology influences on e-commerce over the past decade, as identified by SheerID, a retail technology provider.

Click through for a review of the top technology influences on e-commerce over the past decade, as identified by SheerID.

• Black Friday is declared the busiest shopping day of the year/laptop sales outpace desktop computer sales.
• 55 percent of homes in the U.S. have Internet access.
• 28 percent use dial-up access.

• On the 10th anniversary of online shopping, over 10 percent of U.S. holiday sales are via some means of online commerce.
• 80 percent of U.S. Internet users shop online for holiday purchases.
• Cross-channel shopping rises, 30 percent of holiday purchases are researched online.

The term “Cyber Monday” is coined by Shop.org. Many surmised that consumers shopped online when they returned to work and could take advantage of the office’s high-speed Internet connections.

• On the second annual Cyber Monday, 300,000 people visit Shop.org’s new website, cybermonday.com.
• Online sales total $608 million, a 26 percent gain year-over-year and the single biggest shopping day in e-commerce history at the time.

• Apple introduces the iPhone.
• The term Green Monday is coined by eBay to describe the best sales day in December, typically the second Monday of the month with at least 10 days until Christmas.

• 64 percent of all computers sold are laptops; 55 percent of PC owners in America own a laptop.
• ShopSavvy app is released; shoppers compare prices by scanning a bar code.
• One in 10 Americans now owns a smartphone.

• 20 percent of Americans have an Internet-enabled smartphone.
• On Cyber Monday, retail traffic peaked at 5.1 million visitors per minute online.
• Dealcatcher.com launches free iPhone app that compiles Black Friday deals into searchable lists for shoppers.

• Cyber Monday shopping surpasses $1 billion.
• Five percent of adult Americans own a tablet.
• SheerID releases a verification platform that allows retailers to gate exclusive offers and prevent fraud.
• American Express launches Small Business Saturday.

• Black Friday sales start at midnight for first time ever.
• Kmart and Sears introduce the Shopping Wall QR codes to simplify mobile transactions.
• 35 percent of Americans now own a smartphone.
• Amazon launches its free PriceCheck app.

• 226 million consumers spend $59.1 billion dollars on Black Friday; e-commerce sales account for $2.86 billion over the four-day weekend.
• Cyber Monday crowned as the biggest online shopping day ever in the U.S. with $1.465 billion spent. Online sales increase 30 percent year-over-year.
• 18 percent of consumers use a tablet or smartphone to shop on Cyber Monday.

• 34 percent of adult Americans own a tablet and 61 percent own a smartphone; 70 percent have access to a high-speed broadband connection at home.
• Online holiday shoppers are planning to spend on average approximately $884 each for presents, 20 percent more than consumers overall.