Monday, November 28, 2005

Online Retailers See Increase In Holiday Shopping

Online analysis firm comScore Networks is reporting that non-travel related online spending during the first 25 days of the holiday season, including Friday, November 25th (Black Friday) increased 24 percent over last year, reaching $6.96B. The sales were an increase over $5.60B in online sales last year, a very strong performance for online sellers. According to comScore, sales were strongest during Tuesday of Thanksgiving week, at $441M, an increase of 55 percent over last year. However, unlike at retail stores, comScore reported sales at online stores only totaled $305M on Black Friday. This may have been due to the tendency of online consumers to do their holiday shopping from work, as comScore reported 58 percent of all online non-travel spending the week before Thanksgiving was done by consumers using the Internet from work. comScore is estimating that consumer spending on retail (non-travel) goods at U.S. Internet sites will exceed $19B during the Nov/Dec holiday season.