TulipTools Internet Business Owners and Online Sellers Community

Quote:Fall arrived late this year for much of the country, and consumers are taking their time shopping for seasonal goods. And apparel catalogers are feeling the heat — they say that the warm weather in September and October suppressed sales.

Boston Proper, for one, blames the warm weather and a decline in consumer confidence for September sales that were below expectations...

But the slow takeoff to the season isn't just about the weather. As much as merchants try to encourage holiday shopping earlier and earlier, consumers are getting increasingly determined to buy later in the season.

Research firm NPD Group reports that 41% of consumers surveyed don't plan to start their holiday shopping until after Thanksgiving — 10% more than said the same last year...

Quote: Holiday shopping is off to a slow start, suggests ShopLocal Index

Consumers may be waiting for the promotions they’ve come to expect before opening their wallets to buy holiday gifts, suggests the latest ShopLocal Index.

The index, which measures consumer traffic to in-store promotions offered on 50 retail web sites, was up 16% in October over the prior year—23% when taking into account that there were five Sundays in October 2006 and only four this year. That suggests a shopping slowdown as the index had been up 29% through August...

Quote: On the eve of the all-important Thanksgiving holiday weekend, nervous e-retailers can draw some comfort from two reports on actual online holiday sales to date and from two new consumer intention surveys.

In terms of actual sales, comScore Inc. says online U.S. retail sales totaled $7.04 billion from Nov. 1-18, up 17% from $6.01 billion in the same period last year. The web measurement company also has issued a projection of 20% growth in online retail sales for November and December, to $29.5 billion from $24.6 billion in 2006...

Meanwhile, Hitwise says its index of the top 100 e-retailing sites, the Hitwise U.S. Retail Index, was up 12% over last year for the week ended Nov. 17. Sales at those 100 e-commerce sites grew 7% over the previous week...