Hour by Hour E-Commerce Data: When Americans Really Buy Big-Ticket Goods
September 22, 2025
Hour by Hour E-Commerce Data: When Americans Really Buy Big-Ticket Goods
TL; DR
Big-ticket shopping runs on the clock, with midday and evening dominating as the two predictable daily peaks.
Overnight sales are negligible; unlike consumables, warrantable goods almost vanish between midnight and dawn.
Desktop drives research and many purchases during the day, while mobile overtakes in the evening, capturing over half of checkouts once shoppers are ready to buy.
This behavior reflects the category: higher prices, warranties, and family input make these purchases deliberate, not impulsive.
For merchants, timing is leverage- align ads, support, and checkout design to the shopper’s rhythm, not the brand’s schedule.
“You may delay, but time will not.” - Benjamin Franklin
In e-commerce, that truth is almost literal. Shoppers don’t click “buy” whenever the mood strikes; they move with the clock. Lunch breaks, late evenings, and quiet overnight hours create a rhythm that determines when big-ticket purchases actually happen.
So, over the past three years (2022–2025), we set out to answer a deceptively simple question: when do Americans actually buy big-ticket items online?
Not the small ticket everyday impulse purchases, but more valuable warrantable goods like electronics, appliances, e-bikes, furniture, lawn tools. The kind of products that come with warranties, higher average order values, and household-level decision making.
To get there, we pulled data from multiple sources:
Merchant data → aggregated sales across Shopify, BigCommerce, and WooCommerce.
Industry research → reports from SaleCycle, eMarketer, and Statista.
Category analytics → insights from major U.S. electronics and furniture retailers.
The dataset captures U.S. shopper activity for these categories only, focusing on device usage (desktop vs. mobile) and the share of daily orders in each one-hour window.
So, what does a full day of big-ticket e-commerce actually look like? The numbers below map it out, hour by hour.
1. E-commerce purchase timing trends: hour-by-hour U.S. data
Below is a 24-hour distribution of percentage of daily orders (rounded to the nearest 0.1%). Times are local U.S. time:
Hour (Local)
% of Daily Orders
12 – 1 a.m.
0.8%
1 – 2 a.m.
0.6%
2 – 3 a.m.
0.5%
3 – 4 a.m.
0.4%
4 – 5 a.m.
0.4%
5 – 6 a.m.
0.5%
6 – 7 a.m.
1.0%
7 – 8 a.m.
1.8%
8 – 9 a.m.
2.7%
9 – 10 a.m.
3.5%
10 – 11 a.m.
4.2%
11 a.m. – 12 p.m.
5.3%
12 – 1 p.m.
6.3%
1 – 2 p.m.
7.0%
2 – 3 p.m.
7.2%
3 – 4 p.m.
7.0%
4 – 5 p.m.
6.3%
5 – 6 p.m.
6.1%
6 – 7 p.m.
6.2%
7 – 8 p.m.
5.7%
8 – 9 p.m.
6.3%
9 – 10 p.m.
6.7%
10 – 11 p.m.
6.4%
11 p.m. – 12 a.m.
5.6%
Looking at the curve, it’s obvious the day isn’t evenly distributed. Certain hours consistently drive purchases, while others barely register. Here are the three insights that matter most.
Hourly distribution of U.S. warrantable goods orders (2022–2025), showing distinct midday and evening peaks.
Notable Observations for Warrantable Goods
1. Midday Peak (10 a.m. – 3 p.m.)
A large portion of daily orders (30%) occurs in this block.
Purchases are often research-driven (browsing product specs, reading reviews). Many consumers finalize orders during lunch breaks or early afternoon.
2. Evening Secondary Peak (6 – 10 p.m.)
Another significant spike in order volume (~25–30% of daily total).
Shoppers who researched earlier might finalize higher-value purchases once they’re home or discuss with family/housemates for big-ticket items like furniture, e-bikes, or appliances.
3. Low overnight sales
Only 2.7% of daily orders come in the 12 a.m.–5 a.m. window combined.
Warrantable goods (often >$200) are less likely to be impulse buys at night compared to smaller, commodity purchases.
Device split: desktop vs. mobile
Desktop tends to dominate these higher-value, more complex product purchases during the daytime, while mobile is more prominent in the evening:
Desktop: Roughly 60% of sales for big-ticket / research-intensive items between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.
Shoppers compare specs, read warranties, etc.
A short peak around 11 a.m.–2 p.m. aligns with lunch breaks / office downtime.
Mobile: Around 55% of sales after 6 p.m., more convenient for casual browsing at home.
Many e-bike or home-appliance comparisons happen on mobile first, then the shopper might switch to desktop to finalize details.
The share of purely mobile checkouts in evening hours can exceed 60%.
This split means businesses need to optimize site for both contexts: detail-rich product pages and warranty info for desktop daytime researchers, paired with frictionless mobile checkout flows for evening buyers.
Higher Price Points → Shoppers do more in-depth research and often buy during times they can fully focus (midday or at-home in the evening).
Household Decision-Making → Evening hours are popular for discussing a purchase with family/partner.
Comparison Shopping → Consumers read reviews, watch product videos (often on desktop) before deciding.
Less Impulse, More Planned → Contrasts with consumables (which might see more quick, repeated late-night orders).
Context and use cases
The patterns aren’t just interesting, they’re actionable. Merchants can align operations, marketing, and support directly to the shopper’s clock.
1. Marketing & ad timing
Deploy promotional emails or social ads around 10–11 a.m. or 8–9 p.m. to align with daily peaks.
Retarget cart-abandonment emails for early afternoon or early evening when consumers are most engaged.
2. Customer support availability
Expect spikes in chat or phone queries from 10 a.m.– 2 p.m. and again 6–9 p.m.
Having a flexible support schedule can help close sales, especially for big-ticket items that spark last-minute questions.
3. Site maintenance windows
Schedule major website updates or downtime in late-night hours (2–5 a.m.) when only 2% of daily sales occur. This minimizes disruption for potential buyers of high-value items.
Notes on data sources and reliability
The dataset blends several independent streams of research:
Shopify → Provided time-of-day snapshots for electronics and furniture stores in North America (2022–2024).
Salecycle → Aggregated e-commerce data across major retailers, isolating big-ticket “warrantable” categories.
Statista → Ongoing consumer behavior survey (2022–2023) singled out online purchases over $150, showing midday and evening peaks.
Adobe analytics → Confirmed device-based differences, with 50–60% mobile share overall, but slightly lower for electronics (desktop still 45–50%). Evening hours see mobile surpass desktop.
Given the mix of sources, the 24-hour table represents an approximate national average for U.S. warrantable goods across 2022–2025. Numbers will shift by niche (e.g., e-bikes vs. appliances) and by day of week (weekends might see a later morning start), but the two-peak shape, midday and evening, is consistent across all datasets.
Finally,
Warrantable goods such as electronics, appliances, e-bikes, and furniture consistently follow this daily rhythm:
Midday peak (10 a.m.–3 p.m.) → 30% of orders, with the highest activity around 1–2 p.m.
Evening surge (6–10 p.m.) → Another 25–30% of orders as household decisions are finalized.
Overnight lull (12–5 a.m.) → Minimal activity, just 2.7% of orders combined.
Device split → Desktop dominates daytime, research-heavy orders; mobile takes the lead in the evening with checkout shares exceeding 60%.
Implication for merchants: Align marketing and support to these peaks. Target campaigns around late morning and evening, ensure detail-rich product pages for desktop daytime researchers, and deliver a seamless mobile checkout for evening buyers.
No matter when your shoppers click “buy”, whether it’s 3 p.m. at the office or 3 a.m. on the couch, their concerns don’t clock out. That’s why SureBright AI powered platform protection is built to work around the clock too.
With extended warranties and shipping protection, you don’t just cover the what ifs, you turn them into revenue. Our merchants see attach rates above 20%, higher AOV, and more repeat buyers.
