Holiday season e-commerce spending continues to boom, with sales up 12 percent for the first 40 days of the season, according to market research firm comScore.
Holiday sales to date are $21.95 billion, up 12 percent from a year ago. The most recent week ended Dec. 10 saw online sales hit $5.15 billion, up 11 percent from a year ago. Two of the days surpassed $900 million in sales.
The question is whether online sales are taking market share away from traditional physical retail sales or if everyone is seeing solid growth. If the economy is improving, then both online and physical retailers could both be benefiting. But the odds are likely that online retailers are stealing market share. The strong performance shows that online merchants are perfecting their promotions and are getting better at targeting consumers with the right offers.
The comScore stats begin tracking the holiday sales starting Nov. 1. Gian Fulgoni, chairman of comScore, said that the growth rate so far is consistent with earlier forecasts.
a4‚¬AIt&'s clear that while deal-seeking shoppers may have driven stronger than anticipated spending early in the season, Americans continue to demonstrate a significantly greater willingness to spend online this year than in seasons past,&'' he said. &''This coming week, beginning with Green Monday, should see some of the heaviest online shopping activity of the season and we expect at least one more day to surpass the billion dollar spending threshold.&''
eBay coined the term Green Monday in 2007 as the day when one of the heaviest shopping days of the year occurs. Online sales typically peak before physical sales because merchants have to allow time for shipping to get goods to consumers before Christmas Day. A year ago, Green Monday on Dec. 14 came in at $854 million in sales. This year is expected to be another strong day. Free shipping by online retailers (where the shipment is guaranteed to get there before Christmas) has been extended until Dec. 17. That could actually extend the online sales season.
Since comScore started tracking e-commerce spending in 2001, it has seen only five shopping days eclipse $900 million in single-day spending. To date, Cyber Monday (Nov. 29) has been the only billion-dollar shopping day on record.
[photo credit: the mo down]
Next Story: Twitter prepares for European expansion Previous Story: Spike TV&'s Video Game Awards become the forum for debuting the big games of 2011 (trailers)
Print Email Twitter Facebook Google Buzz LinkedIn Digg StumbleUpon Reddit Delicious Google More&8230'
Companies: comscore
Companies: comscore
Dean is lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He covers video games, security, chips and a variety of other subjects. Dean previously worked at the San Jose Mercury News, the Wall Street Journal, the Red Herring, the Los Angeles Times, the Orange County Register and the Dallas Times Herald. He is the author of two books, Opening the Xbox and the Xbox 360 Uncloaked. Follow him on Twitter at @deantak, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat.
VentureBeat has new weekly email newsletters. Stay on top of the news, and don't miss a beat.
Discuss Add this link to... Bury
Comments