2008 Ecommerce Holiday Spending Flat With 2007

[mandy]

comScore (NASDAQ : SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today reported its tracking of holiday season retail e-commerce spending for the first 42 days of the November – December 2008 holiday season. For the holiday season through December 12, $19.44 billion has been spent online, essentially the same level compared to the corresponding days last year. For the twelve days beginning with December 1 (Cyber Monday), the kick-off to the heaviest part of the online shopping season, sales totaled $8.26 billion, up 3 percent versus year ago. However, the most recent work week (December 8-12) saw e-commerce sales decline by a marginal 1 percent, although December 9 emerged as the highest online spending day on record...

Top Performing Retail Categories Since Cyber Monday

The fastest growing product categories during the period from December 1 through December 12 were Apparel & Accessories (up 21 percent), Books & Magazines (up 18 percent), and Flowers, Greetings & Gift (up 18 percent).  Apparel & Accessories, the second largest online retail category by dollar sales, has seen sales growth as a result of aggressive discounting and unseasonably cold weather across many parts of the country. Following a strong week of Cyber Monday that was driven by large discounts on products such as flat screen TVs, sales of consumer electronics have slowed in the most recent week. The softest retail categories include Music, Movies & Videos (down 25 percent) and Office Supplies (down 33 percent)...

full press release: http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=2621

In a related development, Google CEO Eric Schmidt, speaking during an appearance on the NBC television show Meet the Press noted a trend in the search terms used by online shoppers at this time of the year.

"The--we, we've seen quite an increase in, in queries of things like discounts and bargains and things like that," he said. "And we know that shoppers are using the Internet to get--do better pricing. They're getting better value. But, but, fundamentally, they're behaving as you'd imagine."...

full article: http://news.cnet.com/8301-10787_3-10122799-60.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

[mandy]

The latest update:

Online retail sales for the first 19 days of December struggled to exceed last year’s spending but have eked out a bit of growth—up 1% over a year ago, $12.85 billion this year vs. $12.67 billion a year ago, comScore Inc. reports.

Sales for the full holiday shopping season of Nov. 1 to Dec. 19 are still nearly 1% below a year ago, $24.03 billion so far this year vs. $24.15 billion a year ago, according to comScore.

Last week contained the second heaviest spending day of the year so far, Monday, Dec. 15, when consumers spent $859 million online. The heaviest spending day has been Tuesday, Dec. 9, when sales reached $887 billion...

full article: http://www.internetretailer.com/dailyNews.asp?id=28847

[akash]

The fastest growing product categories during the period from December 1 through December 12 were Apparel & Accessories (up 21 percent), Books & Magazines (up 18 percent), and Flowers, Greetings & Gift (up 18 percent).  Apparel & Accessories, the second largest online retail category by dollar sales, has seen sales growth as a result of aggressive discounting and unseasonably cold weather across many parts of the country. Following a strong week of Cyber Monday that was driven by large discounts on products such as flat screen TVs, sales