VeriSign Reports Mother’s Day Online Activity

DomainInformer.com
May 10, 2005

VeriSign, Inc. (www.verisign.com), a provider of intelligent infrastructure services for the Internet and telecommunications networks, today released new e-commerce data showing that Mother’s Day-related purchases accounted for $4.4 billion in online sales.

VeriSign analyzed online shopping data from April 25 through May 8, 2005, with research indicating an increase in online spending activity of 24 percent as compared to the equivalent time period in 2004 (April 26 through May 9).  During this period, the jewelry category showed a 79 percent increase, far outstripping other traditional Mother Day’s categories, such as flowers and candy.

“Mother’s Day has arrived as one of our larger retail holidays.  Where once this holiday would have been acknowledged with a phone call and a heartfelt card, we’re increasingly seeing people using it as an opportunity to send expensive items, such as a necklace pendant,” said Trevor Healy, vice president, Payment Services, VeriSign. “Online retailers increasingly count on VeriSign to reliably process their transactions.  As such, we will continue to have unique insight into consumer spending habits for this holiday and other major retail events.”

The latest statistics from VeriSign are based on the analysis of online sales volume processed through VeriSign Payment Services, which comprises more than 37 percent of all North American e-commerce, and represents in excess of 135,000 online retailers.

VeriSign tracks year-over-year merchant activity in key e-commerce categories. Significant findings in regard to online shopping activity for Mother’s Day include the following figures from Sunday, April 25, 2005 through Sunday, May 8, 2005, as compared to the equivalent time period in 2004.

Online spending for the jewelry category increased 79 percent in 2005 as compared to the same time period in 2004. Spending in the diamonds subcategory was up 101 percent, with a whopping increase of 540 percent in transaction activity. The diamonds category held an average purchase price of $517. 

Online spending for the candy category was flat in 2005 as compared to the same time period in 2004. Chocolates accounted for 56 percent of the category period sales, with overall spending on this particular item up 35 percent as compared to the same time period in 2004.

Online spending for the flower category decreased 13 percent in 2005 as compared to the same time period in 2004. Transaction activity remained flat.

Overall transaction activity totaled 54.8 million transactions, representing more than a 31 percent increase from the activity recorded in the prior year period.

Monday, May 2, 2005 was the peak online shopping day during the period, accounting for 5.43 million transactions and $473 million dollars.

VeriSign has a unique ability to correlate intelligence gathered across the Internet, which enables the company to identify market trends such as changes in Internet shopping patterns that may impact vendors with an online presence. As such, in addition to reporting on online shopping activity related to Mother’s Day,\

VeriSign also issued data throughout December 2004 regarding e-commerce statistics during the holiday shopping season. Earlier research, as well as guidance for consumers on how to shop safely online and for merchants on how to effectively secure their e-commerce sites, can be found at: www.verisignsecured.com.