Last year’s holiday season wasn’t so cheery for online retailers. The devastating economic recession hit people’s wallets, forcing them to cut back and save whatever they could. Now with the markets recovering, are consumers shopping again?

Data released today by marketing optimization firm Coremetrics reveals that Black Friday, the traditional start to the holiday shopping season, turned out to be a good day (and a welcomed relief) for online retailers. Consumers spent more, ordered more, and did it all more efficiently than compared to Black Friday last year.

Stats Point to a Recovery

According to the Coremetrics data, the average online order on Black Friday jumped to $170.19, an increase of 35 percent. Last year, consumers only spent $126.04 per order on the websites Coremetrics tracks. In addition, there was an 18% increase in the average number of items purchased per order. Last year, it was 4.56 items per order, but this year it rose to 5.40 items.

Coremetrics had some interesting data on how users behaved on retail websites as well. The average bounce rate rose by nearly 40% and browsing sessions decreased by 5%, suggesting that consumers were focused less on “window shopping” and more focused on specific items and deals. If they couldn’t find them on a specific website, they left.

The biggest winners seem to be apparel and jewelry retailers. The data says that the amount spent per order for these websites increased by about 25%. Part of it is department store websites, which had a flood of new customers visiting their websites this Black Friday.

Black Friday has always been an important barometer for the health of the holiday shopping season and the economy. These numbers are reassuring and encouraging, although it’s still just data from a single day. We’ll have to see what the final numbers are for this holiday season to really know if we’re through the worst of the global economic downturn.

Tags: black friday, online retailers, shopping, stats

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Black Friday a Big Win for Online Retailers [STATS]