There is no doubt that an e-commerce merchant needs to study and think about human behavior in order to do a successful business.
This is why, in the global online shopping industry, it may even be necessary to examine the days of the week and even the times of the day when people prefer to shop more frequently.
In this article, we will examine this issue with reference to the research conducted by SaleCycle for you.
The topics we will cover in this article;
Peak Online Shopping Hours
Best Day of the Week for Online Sales
Peak Online Sales Months
What can be learned from this data?
Peak Online Shopping Hours
In 2022 there were two peak hours for online shopping - the first at 10:00 am and the second at 8:00 pm.
Evening time is still not the same as in previous years, but we can say that it is similar.
Sales volumes would increase between 06:00 and 07:00 and would remain at a consistent level after peaking at 10:00 in the morning. Interestingly, in 2022 we see an increase in online purchases during mid-day (traditional working hours) and a slightly lower propensity to shop in the evening compared to previous years.
By November 2022, 38% of workers in Great Britain report working from home at some point in the previous seven days (according to a survey by Statista). With more remote working becoming even more common since the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, we're seeing marketing campaigns targeting morning shoppers perform better.
This shift in people's shopping habits is expected to continue, just as trends in products are changing.
Best Day of the Week for Online Sales
According to research in 2020, the busiest days for online sales were Wednesday and Thursday on weekdays, while Saturday was the worst day of the week for online sales.
However, according to the latest research, Monday has been the day with the lion's share of online sales for the last two years in a row, while Saturday and Sunday are the days with the lowest online sales.
Although many different reasons can be cited for these statistics, the main reasons are;
People do not want to spend their free time shopping
Postpone their shopping because fewer carriers work on the weekend
They want to relieve the stress of work life by shopping on weekdays
are estimated to be reasons such as. As a result, weekends tend to be the slowest period for e-commerce sellers.
The fluctuation of sales volumes during the month is often heavily influenced by salary payment dates, with peak sales days coming at the beginning or end of each month when people are more likely to have money to spend.
According to the data, online sales volume increases significantly between the 25th and 28th of each month. Again, this can be attributed to the fact that payday is just around the corner.n.
Peak Online Sales Months
Looking at sales trends over the whole year, we can see the effects of large online sales events and also cost of living increases on e-commerce sales volumes.
We can see (in the chart below) that spending as a whole decreased in 2022, most likely due to the long-lasting effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Compared to other months, January (a traditional period for the post-Christmas sale) shows a higher sales volume at the beginning of the year, as shoppers are looking for discounts. It could be that stocks are running out (from the previous period) or that sales periods are limited, encouraging people to make faster buying decisions.
November and December appear to be the two biggest months of the year in terms of sales volumes, with some difference between them. The biggest online sales events take place during these two months. Singles' Day, Black Friday and Cyber Monday and the Christmas shopping period combine to make these the busiest months for online retail.
And as we can see below, Black Friday and Cyber Monday have seen tremendous growth from 2019 to 2020.
What can be learned from this data?
For e-commerce merchants, knowing the busiest times of each day, week, month or year can help improve service and sales performance and create optimized campaigns.
In the light of this data, you can draw conclusions about which month of the year, which weeks of the month, which days of the week and which times of the day you need to use your campaigns more or less intensively, so that your campaign results will perform better.
In addition, by creating your stock and inventory plans in advance with reference to these periods, you can also prevent being out of stock during a possible peak sales period.
What you have read in this article are general statistics in various e-commerce sectors, and of course, some business types may reveal different data. For example, the peak sales periods for florists are Valentine's Day or Mother's Day.
(Data taken from: SaleCycle website)
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