Monetate Customers Dramatically Outperform Competitors During 'Cyber Week'; Ecommerce Sales Up 50 Percent

PHILADELPHIA, Dec. 4, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Monetate's marketing Acceleration Cloud influenced more than one third of total U.S. ecommerce sales (or one in every three dollars) during the 2013 holiday shopping season comprising Black Friday thru Cyber Monday. ComScore reported that Cyber Monday 2013 was the biggest online shopping day in history, jumping 18 percent over last year with $1.735 billion in sales from desktops alone. This makes it the second day this season to surpass a billion dollars in online sales.

Recent reports cite industry average revenue growth for the five-day online sales period, from Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday, at anywhere from 16.5 percent to 26 percent. Monetate reports its customers' ecommerce sales have shattered previous year records with a 50 percent revenue increase, dramatically outperforming industry averages.

Thanksgiving and Black Friday fell a week later in the season versus last year, leading stores to push pre-Black Friday deals and shifting consumer spending earlier. This shift has led to an extension of the online holiday shopping season; stretching Cyber Monday into "Cyber Week." As marketers continue to hone their digital strategies, Monetate predicts Cyber Week will overtake Cyber Monday in the years ahead.

"The ecommerce data over the past five days certainly supports the idea that Cyber Monday has made it into consumer consciousness and marks the official kick off to the holiday shopping season," said Elaine Rubin, president of Digital Prophets Network and co-founder and former chair of Shop.org, a division of the National Retail Federation and the organization that coined the term Cyber Monday. "The lines are blurring between Black Friday and Cyber Monday as retailers use digital marketing to create a seamless customer experience. Cyber Monday is turning into Cyber Week, or even Cyber Season, with deals extending well beyond Monday.  One thing is for sure, consumers are using their computers and mobile devices to take advantage of discount buying opportunities."

Cyber Week ecommerce conversion rates jumped 24.23 percent over the previous year according to Monetate. Revenue from shoppers on tablets had the largest revenue increase (170.09 percent), followed by smartphones (109.20 percent), and desktops and laptops (44.71 percent).

"It was no surprise that tablets represented a huge revenue driver this holiday season -- previous years' performance data foretold this trend. Marketers who were unprepared to provide customers with a winning tablet experience should take this lesson to heart when looking to the year ahead," said David Brussin, CEO and co-founder of Monetate.

Brussin continued, "This year's data portends another critical trend for marketers. Email, the lifeblood of ecommerce, took a punch in the gut this season. Email traffic and revenue numbers decreased severely. Consumers are signaling a demand for greater relevancy and consistency from their inbox and marketers who don't heed this warning may find themselves in the same boat as those who were unprepared for tablets this year."

The average order value (AOV) for Cyber Week was up 13.97 percent from last year. Despite a large increase in website traffic from tablets (81.07 percent) and smartphones (58.21 percent), traditional desktop and laptop traffic had an AOV of ($165.17) with 6.60 percent less traffic than last year. Overall website traffic increased 7.90 percent.

The success of this holiday ecommerce season comes at a time of continued, rapid growth for Monetate. The company has more than doubled its revenue over last year and grown to nearly 200 employees globally. It has recently expanded its London offices, extending Monetate's reach further into Europe to include Germany and the Nordic regions. In support of this rapid growth, Monetate recently completed its latest funding round with an additional $8 million investment led by existing investors OpenView Venture Partners, Common Fund and Lead Edge Capital.

About Monetate

Monetate is a marketing acceleration software company that believes when the customer wins, the marketer wins.

A new kind of marketing technology, the Monetate Acceleration Cloud lets marketers understand their customers' situations, behaviors and preferences, and act on those insights with in-the-moment, relevant experiences, targeted to the right customer at the right time.  The Monetate Acceleration Cloud runs above traditional infrastructure and is accessed through one seamless UI.

Monetate generates billions of dollars of new revenue for businesses, helping them grow 39 percent faster than the industry average. Brands such as Best Buy, National Geographic, and Celebrity Cruises rely on Monetate to put the customer first, creating stronger relationships that drive sustained competitive advantage.

SOURCE Monetate