What eCommerce Sites Can Learn From 2022’s Cyber 5

The numbers don’t lie.  

With so much online traffic during this year’s Cyber 5, several patterns emerged over the holiday weekend, which eCommerce sites can both learn and evolve from.  

YOTTAA has sorted through all the data across its 1,500+ eCommerce sites to gain insights into what the stats say about eCommerce sites in 2022, and what it could possibly mean for 2023 and beyond. 

The Growth of Mobile Traffic 

For starters, and perhaps the single biggest takeaway this year, was the uptick in mobile users.  

There was more activity on mobile than ever before – 74% of traffic and 64% of conversions were on mobile, compared with 69% and 60% for the previous week (November 17th – 21st).  

This highlights the importance of eCommerce sites optimizing for mobile, and ensuring a smooth and efficient customer experience, especially during the holiday shopping season, but also all year long.  

Desktop Conversions Remain King 

As far as conversions go, however, shoppers still convert higher on desktops.  

Compared with mobile, conversion rates were higher on desktops, 5.53% vs. 3.01 percent. These were both significantly up from the previous week, where desktop conversions were 3.74% and mobile conversions were 2.19 percent. Session depth was also higher on desktop.  

Safari led the way for browsers, with 46% of sessions as well as the highest share of conversions (49%), although Chrome had a higher conversion rate (4.14%), with the highest session depth, a consistent trend from the previous week.  

What this teaches us is that while users certainly prefer to browse on mobile, when it comes time to finalizing their purchases, they do so with their desktop computer.  

More Site Visitors + More Page Views = More Conversions 

2 + 2 = 4.  

For this year’s Cyber 5, more site visitors and more page views equaled many more conversions across the board.  

There was a 43% increase in shopper sessions with half a page deeper session on average of 4.48 pages per session, ahead of 3.99 pages the week prior.  

The Cyber 5 saw twice as many conversions, with a 41% better conversion rate compared with the previous week. As expected, Black Friday had the most sessions across the Cyber 5 with 75% more site traffic than the previous Friday. Bounce rate was also the lowest on Black Friday (47%) and the average session depth was at its highest at 4.45 pages per session. The bounce rate during the Cyber 5 was 8% lower than the week before.  

The eCommerce Goals Brands Must Have in 2023 

All these statistics from the Cyber 5 are noteworthy, but it’s what your eCommerce site does with them going forward that really matters. 

As 2022 ends, eCommerce sites need to be prepared in 2023 for a new year and new brand initiatives.  

YOTTAA has you covered on December 13th (and beyond). Join us for the Site Speed Summit Focus webinar series, featuring Vanathy Lakshmi, Vice President of Products & Experiences at JCPenney, and Rick Kenney, Founder of Leading Lights. Our speakers will share insights on how eCommerce sites evolved in 2022, the impact that very change had on digital KPIs, and what eCommerce initiatives brands must focus on in 2023 in order to maximize online revenue.  

You can register for the webinar here: https://www.yottaa.com/overcoming-2022-ecommerce-to-start-fast-in-2023/