Cyber Monday – Let the Online Hunt Begin!
hemant is a member of The Motley Fool Blog Network -- entries represent the personal opinion of the blogger and are not formally edited.
Online shopping is on the rise this holiday season, thanks to loads of offers from retailers through mobile markets and the internet. These offers are attracting a lot of buyers who are looking for the best deals. In today’s world many people avoid going to stores flooded with crowds; after all, if what they want can be delivered straight to their homes, why should they fight the hundreds of people trying to buy the same thing? While tablets and smartphones will be the most wanted gifts this year, shoppers who already own these devices will browse and buy for the ‘perfect gift.’
Approximately 69% of the US consumers are using smartphones or tablets to research the best gifts online. They may buy it online or research it before buying it from the store, or they may use the hand held devices to compare the products or look up the retailer information while they are at the store.
Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) released some offers online for its wide range of products. The iPad was available at a starting price of $458 – that’s $41 lower than what it was a week ago. The iPad 2 was at $368, a dip of $31. Also, the iPod touch and iPhone 5 were available at a discount of $31, along with the iPod Nano, which is down by $11. The MacBook Pro and MacBook Air were also discounted by $101.
Investors and retailers alike are all set for the tablet market to overtake the notebook market very soon. In North America, tablet shipments are expected to exceed notebook shipments on an annual basis for the first time ever beginning in 2013: 80 million tablets versus 63.8 million notebooks. However, this doesn’t apply to the worldwide market.
Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT), and Target (NYSE: TGT) also have a lot of online offers for shoppers who are looking for the best deals. Online sales increased 17.4% on Thanksgiving and 20.7% on Black Friday, compared with 2011. eBay saw a 133% increase in mobile payments over their 2011 figures. PayPal saw a bigger jump, with a 173% increase over its last year’s figure.
Stocks are also on the rise this shopping season. The Nasdaq ended up 40.30 points, or 1.4%, at 2,966.85. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 172.79, or 1.4%, to 13,009.69, and the S&P 500 was up by 18.12 (1.3%) to 1,409.15.
Below is a summary of the major online retails stocks compared to last year:
| Stock | 29-Nov-11 | 29-Nov-12 | %Change |
| Wal-Mart | $58.17 | $70.71 | 19.99 |
| Target | $52.24 | $62.03 | 20.23 |
| Apple | $373.2 | $589.25 | 56.63 |
| Amazon.com | $188.39 | $250.10 | 31.17 |
| eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) | $28.75 | $52.20 | 79.03 |
As you can see from the above data, all the major stocks gained significantly this holiday season compared to the same time last year. Clearly this year has seen a boom for online shopping.
Wal-Mart and Target increased more than 19% compared to last year. Apple has been an even big gainer, as last year it was at $373.2 and this year it is at $589.25, an increase of more than 56%. Amazon also increased by 31.17% to $250.10. The biggest gain came for eBay, which increased by than 79% to $52.20. This clearly shows that online shopping is really growing fast.
Investors who own stocks of these online retailers surely have a reason to cheer this year. But is this growth sustainable? We’ll have to wait and watch.
hemantnagla has no positions in the stocks mentioned above. The Motley Fool owns shares of Apple and Amazon.com. Motley Fool newsletter services recommend Apple, Amazon.com, and eBay. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Is this post wrong? Click here. Think you can do better? Join us and write your own!
